FIRST OFF, SOME STATS:

Find the book on: Amazon and Goodreads
Pages: 160
Publisher: Second Story Press
Release Date: March 18, 2019
Title: The Case of Windy Lake
Fiction

BACK COVER BLURB

Sam, Otter, Atim and Chickadee are four cousins growing up on the Windy Lake First Nation. They are inseparable. Nicknamed the Mighty Muskrats for their habit of laughing, fighting and adventuring together, the cousins find that each new exploit adds to their reputation.

When a visiting archeologist goes missing, the cousins decide to solve the mystery of his disappearance. In the midst of community conflict, family concerns and environmental protests, the four get busy following every lead.

From their base of operations in a fort made out of an old school bus, the Mighty Muskrats won’t let anything stop them from solving their case!

WHY I CHOOSE THIS BOOK

Everything about this book blurb interests me, especially a character named Chickadee. I’ve always liked reading about Native Americans, and from what I researched, the First Nations are Canadian Indians. Plus, I’m working on reading more mystery books.

WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS BOOK

I have very mixed emotions about this book, and the negative emotions are the most important in this case (which is not normal for me with reviews) so I’ll start with that one.

There was swearing in the book. The words weren’t “strong” enough to make me stop reading it (and I am pretty strict about what I read), but they were enough to lower my rating no matter who the book was meant for. But, considering that the book was written for children? I understand that not everyone views minor swearing the way I do, but it was enough that I won’t recommend the book.

And now for the rest of the review: I actually liked the book a fair amount, it was interesting enough that it made me want to keep reading other books in the series to see if they were clean.

Although the mystery didn’t garner my imagination like it probably would have as a kid, I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and culture that the story was soaked in. So many books I read are about people from the USA, so to read a book from the perspective of Native Canadians? That was cool.

The clubhouse that the kids had was also super cool and that in itself was enough to make me want to read more from their perspective.

CONCLUSION

I might eventually read more books from the author, although probably not for review since I had to give this one such a low rating.

RATING

I’m giving The Case of Windy Lake 2 out of 5 stars.

((I got this book from NetGalley so I could review it, all thoughts and opinions are my own.))