Watts and Whiskerton: The Great Glacier Hotel Heist

Watts is delighted to be going on his first family holiday- a trip with no detecting- and is thrilled that his friend, Pearl, and her dad are coming too. However, it soon becomes clear that The Great Glacier Hotel and Ski Resort has become a crime scene- and his parents are prime suspects. Watts and Whiskerton swing into action and get ready to solve their third case…

‘The Great Glacier Hotel Heist’ continues this delightful series with another brilliant adventure for Watts and Pearl. This new mystery is every bit as enjoyable as the previous two, testing the observational and deductive powers of readers!

Once again, visual story telling is a key element of the tale with speech bubbles and comic strip elements embedded into the narrative along with other illustrations. Highly engaging, the pictures add much to the story, offering newly independent readers support. Each chapter concludes with ‘Watts’ notes’ in which he summarises the action, lists the facts and poses questions. These are excellent for developing prediction, inference and deduction as well as offering an excellent starting point for discussion and developing ideas if the story is being shared.

In the hands of the right teacher, the illustrations could be used to develop children’s understanding of speech, speech punctuation, using speech synonyms and/or developing reporting clauses. Watts’ speech bubble on page 75 would also make a great introduction to note making! The story would make a really fun class read and children could be encouraged to make their own notebooks and use them to keep their own notes to help them solve the case!

Great characters, an engaging case and lashings of lovely illustrations… the perfect combination for a Watts and Whiskerton mystery!

Watts and Whiskerton: The Great Glacier Hotel Heist

Meg McLaren

Piccadilly ISBN: 978-1800786639

You can read my review of ‘Sabotage at the Fete Cake Bake’ here and ‘Buried Bones and Troublesome Treasure’ here.