Operation Orca

Reviewed by: Jill O'Connor - North Yarmouth Academy, Yarmouth, Southern Maine Library District

Review Date: January 25, 2016

Review

Super Edition 7 in the popular A to Z Mysteries series, this title is a solid read. The mystery involves a missing baby orca, a millionaire looking for his lost family, a red herring, and plenty of clues. Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are in Alaska traveling with Dink's father (how these kids get to go everywhere they go is the real mystery). They meet Rafe Johnson, owner of a fishing boat, who takes them out into the ocean and introduces them to a pod of whales. It is from this pod that the baby goes missing, and the kids don't have much time to find it because it needs its mother's milk or it will surely die. Using their collective wits and a little bit of daring, the kids do solve the mystery. They also manage to find the missing family AND get a free plot of land donated to the local library to expand along with some much-needed funds for the overcrowded, popular institution. A book that asks readers to think about several things: respecting nature, the value of time spent with family, and the benefit and glory of loving learning over money. Readers of the series won't be disappointed. As an adult, I would have loved an author note with a little more information about orcas in the wild and the efforts of animal conservationists. Also these bindings are so flimsy that they don't stand up to many circulations. An easy purchase for collectors of the A to Z Mysteries

Overall Book Score: good