Orion Books Review – Mystery And Adventure

Looking for some adventure books for your kids to read?

Then maybe one of these books (Sam Silver Undercover Pirate, Mariella Mystery or Laura Martin Mystery) that we were sent by Orion Books to review will be of interest.

Sam Silver Undercover Pirate – Kidnapped
by Jan Burchett & Sara Vogler
ISBN 978-1-44400586-8

If you’ve got kids that love pirate adventures and history then this could be the book for you. Sam Silver has a secret. He can travel back in time 300 years to a pirate ship in the Caribbean all thanks to a gold coin he found in a bottle.

This is book three in the Sam Silver series but can be read out of sequence. In this adventure Sam Silver finds himself searching for his crew mate Charlie who seems to have disappeared after a huge sea battle with enemy ships.

It’s a shortish novel with larger text and a few black and white images. The story is a proper old fashioned pirate tale with talk of corsairs, galleons, cutlasses mixed with an evil uncle and inheritance issues.

My girls sadly found this book hard to get into mainly because the historical context just didn’t grab their imagination. To be fair the language used is a little old for them but even I found the flow of the story difficult to read at times. A book for us to revisit when they’re older.

This is a book for die hard pirate lovers with an interest in ships, swashbucklers and history.

Mariella Mystery Investigates … The Ghostly Guinea Pig
by Kate Pankhurst
ISBN 978-1-4440-0888-3

“Meet Mariella Mystery – no mystery too mysterious, no problem too perplexing. The first title in a debut series perfect for 7+ girls and fans of Clarice Bean.

Mariella Mystery (That’s me!) – totally amazing girl detective, aged 9 and a bit. Able to solve the most mysterious mysteries and perplexing problems, even before breakfast.

When their teacher Miss Crumble spots the ghost of her pet guinea pig, Mr Darcy, in her back garden, she doesn’t know what to think. But Mariella knows it’s up to her and her fellow Mystery Girls to get to the bottom of The Case of the Ghostly Guinea Pig.”

My eldest (aged 8) loved reading this book and couldn’t put it down. It’s written like a journal. The text is easy to read and is broken up with quirky images, notes and important facts that are all very much part of the story. My eldest loved the style and ease of the book and couldn’t wait to talk about all the guinea pig info she was reading about.

This book is great for children who are just branching out into reading on their own but would also go down well with children a few years ahead who wanted a fun easy read. Not an easy book to read out loud.

A Laura Marlin Mystery – Dead Mans Cove 
by Lauren St John
ISBN 978-1-4440-0148-8

This book was awarded the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2011

“‘What I want,’ Laura declared, ‘is to have a life packed with excitement like some of the characters in my books.’

When orphaned Laura Marlin is sent to live with her uncle in St Ives, Cornwall, she is convinced that a life of adventure is hers at last. But everywhere she turns she is confronted with mysteries.

Is Tariq, the shopkeeper’s silent son, a friend or an enemy? Why does her uncle seem intent on erasing his own past? And why is everyone so afraid of Dead Man’s Cove?”

We’re only half way through this book but the girls have taken to it better than Sam Silver. It’s lovely to read out loud to the girls and is full of adventure and excitement that they can relate to. It’s wonderful to listen to them talking about what they think is going to happen next. If they think Laura is on the right track. What they would do if they were Laura.

It’s perfect for children to read on their own or have read to them and I’m looking forward to reading more. It reminds me of the adventure stories I used to read and long to be a part of when I was a child.