Billie and her best friends, Jack, Alex, and Mika, formed the Secret Mystery Club that is based in a tree house in Billie’s backyard. Someone put leaves in Rebecca’s sandwich; Rebecca is a classmate. Benny got in trouble for it, but Billie is convinced he didn’t do it and sets off to try and prove his innocence.
This series is a spinoff of the Billie B Brown series that is a general realistic fiction series about an elementary school girl doing things. I haven’t read any of them, but they look fine enough. Pretty standard school shenanigans. The mystery series is set a few years after the normal series, so the characters are a bit older. Judging from the art difference, I’m assuming it’s a gap of 2nd grade versus 5th or so.
I really like the art style of this series. The art is a somewhat manga-like style that works really well along-side Billie and Mika (and possibly Alex though I’m not sure) being Asian. Mika is specifically noted to be Japanese, but Billie’s ethnicity isn’t discussed. However, her family makes some different Asian cuisine like dolmades, so I am assuming she is Asian. Speaking of which, it was nice to see some representation of different ethnicities.
The mystery isn’t hard. It isn’t fair play as the reader has no way of knowing why the person who did it put leaves in Rebecca’s sandwich, but the reader can pretty easily guess who did it.
The book ends with the beginning of the next mystery. The beginning of the book also seemed to reference previous ones, so I think it is best to read the series in order. The book reminded me a lot of the Nancy Drew Notebooks in the nature of the mystery itself.
A weird note is that the club’s group chant is making a rooster sound. Maybe that’s explained in a previous book, but it felt really random to me.
Should you read it?:
I enjoyed it. The mystery isn’t very hard, but the artwork is enjoyable, and Billie is a fine character. She has just enough charisma and gumption to be endearing but not annoying. I’d recommend the series for people who enjoy the Nancy Drew Notebooks as this book reminded me of that series a lot.
Do Act Mysterious 