Priya Mistry and the Paw Prints Puzzle
Priya Mistry is your local corner shop super sleuth, and she’s onto something! Join her as she follows the trail of pawprint clues that lead through her parents’ shop. What will she find at the other end? Fairies? Dinosaurs? It’s a mystery alright, and she’s the girl to crack the case.
Priya Mistry and the Paw Prints Puzzle is a warm portrait of community. Priya’s shopkeeper parents chat to locals as she hunts for clues, with Mrs Patterson, a regular customer, putting down her basket and pulling out her yeti-spotting binoculars to help in the search. The illustrations are vibrant and colourful, inviting the reader to peruse them like a miniature Where’s Wally? They bring a sense of childish wonder and excitement to shelves of tinned peas and toilet paper.
The book’s only fault is that the mystery element of the plot is carried entirely by the reader’s curiosity as to who is leaving the pawprints behind. However, since even tiny tots know that a hole in a skirting board means a mouse house, the mystery is solved long before Priya catches her fluffy perp red-pawed. However, if you enjoy curiosity for its own sake, you will find much to enjoy in this simple mystery story.
