EJ12 Girl Hero: 1: Hot and Cold product reviews

I liked the premise of this story - Primary School girl who doubles as a spy for a secret agency and goes on a series of adventures. The things she finds difficult to do at school - like facing down bullies - becomes easier after a mission from SHINE agency which inevitably teaches her the skills she needs to solve her real life problems (this theme persists throughout the series).

It was a very quick and easy read full of well-integrated facts (about Antarctica in this case), positive environmental messages and experiences that young primary school girls can probably relate to.

The codes are very simple in this first book, but they get progressively harder and each code is presented on a different page to the solution, giving the reader a chance to work it out for themselves before turning the page.

EJ12 is a very light, friendly read with none of the 'grit' or 'darkness' which has been creeping into other child spy books of late. All about saving animals, and the world, from SHADOW's 'dastardly plans', I found myself wondering in a couple of places if it was actually a spoof, but I suspect that for the target age group (about 7 - 10), it would go down quite well.