The Bother with the Bonkillyknock Beast:
Miss Mary-Kate Martin's Guide to Monsters #3
by
Karen Foxlee
Illustrated by Freda Chiu
Publisher: Allen & Unwin Children's
Publication date: 3rd January 2024
Series: Miss Mary-Kate Martin's guide to Monsters #3
Genre: Middle Grade (Junior fiction)
Pages: 288
RRP: $15.99AU (paperback)
Source: Courtesy of the publisher
Review: The Bother with the Bonkillyknock Beast
The Bother with the Bonkillyknock Beast is book 3 in the Miss Mary-Kate Martin's guide to Monsters Series.
Mary-Kate is looking forward to a nice quiet holiday with her grandmother in a nice quiet castle. What she doesn't know is her grandmother is taking her to a World Society of Monster Hunters conference.
The series revolves around the adventures of Mary-Kate Martin and her monster hunting family. Armed with her trusty notebook and a bag of lucky items Mary-Kate and new found friends Millicent and Simon embark on a quest to solve the mystery behind the ear-shattering howls and the break-in in the castle kitchen.
Foxlee challenges the ideas of good and evil as Mary-Kate endeavours to understand and save the Bonkillyknock Beast.
Exploration of themes such as friendship, courage, teamwork, anxiety, honesty and curiosity offers a captivating reading experience for young readers in this fast-paced and hair-raising story.
Mary-Kate is a young girl with anxiety issues who works hard to push past her fears using coping mechanisms she has put in order to calm herself.
" Mary-Kate closed her eyes. She needed quiet and calm and a neatly written list in a soothing colour."
It was fun to follow the three friends as they worked together to solve the mystery.
Readers of the series will love this new addition. Newcomers can rest assured it reads well as a standalone however once your young reader has finished they will be eager to obtain the previous two books.
Publisher recommended age 6 - 10 years
My rating 5 / 5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
