Surfboard to Peril

Miss Mallard, well-known “ducktective” has a big case to solve. She is vacationing in Hawaii and surfing with her instructors, Kai and Kawai when she hits a mysterious rock with her surfboard. It turns out that it is an ancient stone that proves the land is owned by both villages nearby. As the villagers are celebrating the stone and the answers it provides, it disappears! Miss Mallard is on the case. She dusts the area for featherprints and finds a suspicious keychain. She has three suspects, an archaeologist (Horace Shoveller), an old sailor (Joe Scaup) and a builder (Clyde Pochard) who is interested in developing the land. Through her quick wits and deductive reasoning, Miss Mallard captures the thief and restores the stone to its rightful place.

This story is a nice introduction to early chapter books, with a list of characters/descriptions in the front of the book and a glossary of potentially unfamiliar words in the back. Illustrations are black and white and the words are in larger font. Readers will enjoy this quick read and will enjoy the mystery that Miss Mallard solves for them.