This is a fun and great story with a brilliant message of conservation. ‘Agents of the Wild: Operation Honeyhunt’ is almost A5 in size and filled with very thick pages of text and illustrations. The book is quite heavy and has a lovely embossed cover. Agnes, who loves animals, lives with her uncle who really doesn’t. Unable to have a pet, she spends her time obvserving and studying animals in her local area. But one day an animal she wasn’t expecting turns up in her home, one dressed in a uniform, and tells Agnes she’s needed for a very special mission.
This is a funny and fun story for children. Agnes is like many children, fascinated by animals, the same way her parents were. As she ends up following the animal who came to her home, an elephant shrew named Attie, to the headquarters of a place called SPEARS, she embarks on an amazing adventure to save a very rare and endangered animal. I enjoyed reading this story, it was easy to get into right away and as soon as Agnes makes it to SPEARS some funny things start to happen. I enjoyed all the different animals she met and the various things she learned.
As the story progresses and ends up crossing to a different continent, we are introduced to several more animals who all play a part in the fun adventure Agnes and Attie go on. The story ends well, with an indication of future books and more adventures to come, and I especially enjoyed what is at the back of the book after the main story is finished. Although the tale is quite predictable, there’s a great message about conservation and, in this book in particular, a message about looking after the rainforest. There are some case files at the end of the book which give more details into the different animals mentioned in the story, information about the real animals (rather than their more comic versions in the story) and some great tips on how kids can help with spreading the environmental/conservation message. I really enjoyed these additions to the back of the book which make the story feel more important.
The illustrations are brilliant and really make the story more fun. Every double page has some sort of illustration on it with all the pictures being a mix of black, grey, white and green. I have to say I love the way Attie looks, as well as a lot of the other animals. The illustrations add more humour to the story and I can’t help but love the way Elton looks with all those glasses!
Overall this is a lovely book with a nice story and I am looking forward to reading the next adventure of Agnes and Attie and seeing what they will be doing next time. I haven’t given the book a full rating because although it has funny moments, it did feel a bit predictable and just not as good as some similar-style children’s books (maybe I just wanted to see a lot more of the funny bad guy), but overall it’s still a great story, with a great message which I did enjoy.
-Thanks to Walker Books for a free copy for review.