The Mystery of the Gold Coin (1) (Greetings from Somewhere)

My kids love this adorable book! We read it in one sitting. This series is now my 7 year olds favorite!!!!! I got this to read along with geography with our homeschool just to have a fun story from wherever place we were learning about. Best decision ever!

I bought this because we love the Recipe for Adventure series of books by Giada De Laurentis. The story lines are nice but the reading level is at a level just a little bit lower than what we needed(2nd-3rd grade level).

My son read this for his 3rd grade book report. It was a quick read and he really enjoyed it. I would highly recommend this book and others in this series.

I will add this to my school library. I think it will be a conversation starter for geography.

My son has begun this series (read 1 & 2) and enjoys these mysteries, surrounded by information about geography, culture, and trivia of other people and places. However, the "lies of omission" are upsetting to him. The children never tell their parents about their mystery-solving activities, and their Grandpa is an accomplice to this cover up. What are you trying to teach youngsters -- that it is okay not trust your parents? That your parents are too "dumb" to understand what is going on? That you do not need to respect your parents? That you can disobey your parents as long as you can get away with it? I am going to let my son continue in this series, at least for a while, from our library, but with reservations. Nor would I recommend this author to a friend. I would suggest that the author re-evaluate this aspect of her writing. Children's authors can have such an impact on the minds and lives of their readers. They should considered it a privilege to have their words "devoured" by these youngsters, and a duty to do them right by their work.

Author Harper Paris and Little Simon have recently released a new beginning chapter book series, Greetings from Somewhere, which is perfect for those who are graduating from beginning readers like Henry & Mudge or Dr. Seuss and are ready for something a little longer, but not particularly more difficult. The first book weighs in at 118 pages, with very large font and appealing black and white illustrations on every page. These appear to be at an easier reading level than a series like Magic Treehouse, and are well suited to children from 7-9, or even younger, if the child is already reading.The series starts with The Mystery of the Gold Coin. It revolves around eight-year old twins Ethan and Ella, who when the series opens are less than thrilled when they discover they are about to leave on what their parents are billing as the adventure of a lifetime--traveling around the world with their mother, a travel writer, and their father, who will be home-schooling the twins during their travels. The twins are more concerned about missing their friends and soccer games. But just before they're supposed to leave, a special gold coin that was a present from their grandpa disappears--leaving the twins to solve the mystery before they have to leave for the airport.This is a gentle yet appealing mystery series with no violence, a chance to learn about some exotic locations (future volumes take place in Venice, Paris, Beijing, and Africa) and a little foreign vocabulary (a glossary of foreign words is included).

The Greetings from Somewhere series is new from Little Simon, positioned as sort of a chapter version of picture book adventures like  From Kalamazoo to Timbuktu! . This first in the series goes on sale today (January 7) along with Book 2,  The Mystery of the Mosaic .Don't know much about the author--is Harper Paris a pen name?--but she plays it safe with her young audience. Adventure here is a fun, danger-free diversion. There is less detecting than in, say,  Encyclopedia Brown  or the  A to Z Mysteries . The Greetings from Somewhere books may be mysteries in title, but twins Ethan and Ella just sort of watch things happen around them. Large type and plentiful illustrations from Marcos Calo ensure that beginning readers will not feel overwhelmed. Glossary with foreign words included.The first book introduces the characters and sets the tone. (It's not clear if Ethan accidentally threw the coin into the fountain or simply dropped it and someone else did.) The second book is more representative of future entries in the series, as the twins continue to explore foreign cities while accompanying their travel writer mom. The Grandpa Harry character is appealing, and may function as a sort of sage from afar.I would place this at the bottom of the recommended 5-7 age range. Young readers who like travel and adventure and are willing to amp up the excitement may wish to explore the  Magic Tree House series .[The reviewer was provided with a complimentary copy of the book.]

Our child is a very precocious reader. It's been hard to find age appropriate titles that are more challenging in terms of the reading level, but this was spot on and touches on all of his interests. The plot is cute and it's well written and uses good vocabulary (and more complex sentence structure than Magic Tree House).

Really did not feel this story went anywhere that it promised. Myself and the children were expecting an adventure in a foreign land, with educational information. However, it was a simple reader about a pair of siblings who were about to travel the world with their parents and they didn't want to leave their friends. In the process of packing they loose a gold coin the grandfather had given them and gave to retrace steps to find it. It was boring and had no real climax, other than the children being happy to go in the end.This was recommended as part of a home educating curriculum covering geography and cultural studies. This book failed to add anything to my children's studies and they were left confused by the lack of any real story or adventure. We won't be buying anymore of the series.As a simple early chapter book, first reader it is probably fine (although I think there are better out there). For anything else, this book misses the mark.

Good

Good book

Great book for increasing your informal vocabularyI highly recommend it to English learners if they want to improve their speaking skills

My son loves this series. Great, easy-to-understand writing, introduction to words & phrases from non-english languages..