3 stars
This was kind of a tricky one to rate. I really liked the focus on Juliet and all of the parts she played to help solve the mystery and her friends.
However, I think it was too ambitious to try to include so much detail in a Level Two reader. Level Two books use longer sentences and more difficult vocabulary words. There is definitely more text in this one in comparison to Level One readers, but a lot of the sentences were direct and short, creating a very choppy story. It seemed there was just too much to describe in the book. It all went by too quickly and was kind of confusing. For example, “But Irene refused to help. Instead she sang a song.” That second part probably wasn’t really that relevant and could have been cut to make the story more coherent. Would have been better if it had focused on the main details instead of including so much.
In contrast, I really liked the illustrations. Love the style and the details. Great variety of facial expressions and worked well in combination with the text.
I didn’t really like the writing, but loved the illustrations and the focus on Juliet, which is why I still chose to give this book 3 stars instead of 2. Those illustrations are just beautiful.