Book Review: The Fossil Hunter of Syndey Mines by Jo Ann Yard

Reading level: Ages 9-12
Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing (October 1, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1551097605
ISBN-13: 978-1551097602
 Buy the book: Amazon

Thirteen-year-old Grace already has too much going on—grieving over her father's mysterious death, dealing with her distraught mother's erratic parenting, and evading her creepy nosy neighbor, Mr. Stuckless, just for starters. She and her friends Fred, Mai Ling, and Jeeter like to get away from it all by hunting for fossils near their secret hideaway, the abandoned mine they've nicknamed The Black Hole. But when Grace receives a strange note regarding her father's death, it sets off a chain of events that sees Grace and her friends turning into detectives to solve the mystery behind his suspicious disappearance. As the clues and suspects start piling up and the investigation becomes more and more dangerous, Grace and her friends find themselves racing against time through treacherous sinkholes and abandoned mine shafts to figure out what really happened to her father.

Review

This book was really interesting. I like mysteries and this was a great mystery. The author did a good job making sure I didn't discover the truth before I needed to. Jeeter was my favorite character, he was funny and cool. Grace's friends made the story more fun, with all their different personalities and each one had a great character. You will enjoy this mystery novel. The clues dropped along the way and events that took place were crazy cool. Even though the main character is a girl, I think boys will enjoy it very much!