33 review for Merlin Missions Collection: Books 9-16: Dragon of the Red Dawn; Monday with a Mad Genius; Dark Day in the Deep Sea; Eve of the Emperor Penguin; And More

1. 

   4 out of 5

   Steven – Aug 03, 2020

   This review only addresses book #11 of the series: Dark Day in the Deep Sea. It's not listed separately in Goodreads. My seven-year-old granddaughter loaned me her copy of this book to read. She has many others in the series. When I was about her age, some six decades ago, I got hooked on the Tom Swift Jr. series and enjoyed them intensely. Like adults, children can develop a strong liking for series books. They become familiar with the characters and delight in following them in each new adventur This review only addresses book #11 of the series: Dark Day in the Deep Sea. It's not listed separately in Goodreads. My seven-year-old granddaughter loaned me her copy of this book to read. She has many others in the series. When I was about her age, some six decades ago, I got hooked on the Tom Swift Jr. series and enjoyed them intensely. Like adults, children can develop a strong liking for series books. They become familiar with the characters and delight in following them in each new adventure. In this story, the author does a fine job of quickly bringing unfamiliar readers up to speed with the characters and their backstory. Therefore, you can likely pick up any one of the books and enjoy it without having to start with the first one and read them in order. Young children Jack and Annie know of a treehouse, but it’s a magical one that can transport itself and its occupants to any place or time, using the magic of Merlin. In this tale, the treehouse takes our duo to a distant island shore in the 1870s, where they encounter HMS Challenger and have an adventure involving a giant octopus. (That’s no spoiler; there’s an octopus pictured on the cover.) The author handles the magic stuff well, giving it some historical context, and strict rules. She presents a lesson in both history and marine biology woven into an exciting story, well suited for both young girls and boys. I found the emphasis on the story’s moral to be a bit heavy-handed, and the writing style too loaded with exclamation points. Still, I suspect few members of the book’s intended audience would object to either of those criticisms. The book includes a brief Author’s Notes section explaining about HMS Challenger. There is also a set of instructions for a story-related craft, and a word puzzle. The black-and-white interior illustrations by Sal Murdocca are very well rendered and would certainly aid any reader in understanding the action of the story. I would highly recommend this book for children aged seven to ten.

2. 

   4 out of 5

   Achyuth Thumatty –

3. 

   4 out of 5

   Jess Rose –

4. 

   5 out of 5

   Megan –

5. 

   5 out of 5

   Lucas –

6. 

   5 out of 5

   Kim –

7. 

   4 out of 5

   Rebecca Keppler –

8. 

   4 out of 5

   Lee Ann –

9. 

   4 out of 5

   Big Chungus –

10. 

    5 out of 5

    Corey Gilliland –

11. 

    5 out of 5

    Shahd Rdawi –

12. 

    4 out of 5

    Kaustuv Dey –

13. 

    5 out of 5

    Greta –

14. 

    5 out of 5

    Schwuchs –

15. 

    5 out of 5

    AnnaBella –

16. 

    5 out of 5

    Knotts –

17. 

    5 out of 5

    Kim –

18. 

    4 out of 5

    James mills –

19. 

    4 out of 5

    Gurveer –

20. 

    5 out of 5

    Michael Salen –

21. 

    5 out of 5

    Donna –

22. 

    4 out of 5

    Ed –

23. 

    4 out of 5

    Tiffany –

24. 

    5 out of 5

    Madeline –

25. 

    5 out of 5

    Freyja –

26. 

    5 out of 5

    Bella –

27. 

    5 out of 5

    Margaret Chind –

28. 

    5 out of 5

    Christina Browne –

29. 

    5 out of 5

    Mconne5 –

30. 

    5 out of 5

    Jennifer Fenn –

31. 

    4 out of 5

    Dante –

32. 

    5 out of 5

    Katrina –

33. 

    4 out of 5

    Amy Anderson –