The Dismal Daffodil (The Cryptic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno (and Alberta)) by Dubosarsky Ursula

The Cryptic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno and Alberta #4

by Ursula Dubosarsky

Perplexing puzzles, mind-boggling mazes and cracking codes feature in this series of stories about a pair of guinea-pig detectives - Coco Carlomagno, the easily-startled Chief of Police, and his more sensible cousin, Alberta.Alberta is helping her cousin Coco, the Chief of Police, solve a top-secret case. In the beautiful Japanese garden of Buenos Aires, one daffodil will not stop drooping. Is someone trying to destroy the serene beauty of this oriental oasis?

Paperback

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

Ursula Dubosarsky is an award-winning author of numerous books for children and young adults. About The Golden Day, her first book with Candlewick Press, she says, "The little girls watch, wonder, respond, change, and grow — and then their childhood is gone, forever. This element of the story, I suppose, is at least partly autobiographical. But, as I say — all of our teachers come home safe and sound in the end." Ursula Dubosarsky lives in Australia.

Reviews

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Dismal Daffodil is a children’s book by Ursula Dubosarsky, and illustrated by Terry Denton. In this adventure, Alberta receives a message from her cousin, Coco, who is the Chief of Police in Buenos Aires. He is asking for her help in the mystery of a drooping daffodil.

This is the fourth book in “The Cryptic Casebook of Coco Carlomagno and Alberta” series. But it can be read as a standalone, and you don’t need to have read the others. It takes place in Japanese inspired gardens in Buenos Aires. I'm sure it will be interesting to a lot of readers, and it can introduce them to a bit about Japanese culture. I love the characters a lot in these books. Alberta is always such a helpful character, eager to travel all the way to Buenos Aires to help her cousin. And Coco always comes through by making sure any wrong-doers are brought to justice.

Once again, in my opinion, the main brilliance of the book is the illustrations and puzzles. There’s a few different types of puzzles, so that readers can try figuring out all the clues and stuff going on. As well as seeing in the backgrounds of scenes, for the clues of a bigger puzzle to solve. I think the artist always does well at creating the puzzles and illustrations. And I always enjoy getting to see Alberta and Coco on their adventures.

Overall, it’s a pretty good book. I think the series is fun and this one is another good example of the work of both the author and illustrator.

[Sean Harding · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book four of the series of mystery-lite with puzzles for the young reader to work through. The books are fairly similar but they are very engaging for a young reader, and quite interactive.