A tadpole (creatively named Tad) has gone missing, and the pond is in an uproar. Animals are searching, but they don't all know what they're searching for. They find a pair of glasses and some spooky algae, but Detective Duck is just the critter to figure out how to tie all these problems up and solve the case.

This is a cute and funny story that thoughtfully mentions the impact humans can have on nature. Unfortunately, it jumps around a lot. For such a small book, it has way too many characters and no consistent sense of POV. It's a chaotic read, and it would have done better if it had tried to do just one or two things with one or two characters rather than trying to build an entire world in 30 pages.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC. All opinions are my own.

I received an electronic ARC from ABRAMS | Amulet Books through NetGalley.
Detective Duck returns and takes on a new case. Tad the Tadpole is missing and Willow enlists help to find him. As her team explores the pond, they discover some strange colored plants and brown water draining from a pipe. They also discover how hard it is to breathe near these things. When a human boy loses his glasses in the water, this starts a chain of events that leads to humans working to clean up the pond and stop the drainage. The friends are glad to be together and know their pond will be saved too. The short chapter format works to share the story. The illustrations bring the characters to life and offer readers a view of pond life.

The illustrations are adorable. I enjoyed that the story was about a pond and kids can learn about pollution. For young readers, I thought the text was a little long. Toward the end of the book, I wish there were more details about the farm, action steps, and how the pond the water, and the animals would be affected, without it getting too wordy. I enjoyed the story had two storylines to follow to keep the reader interested in the missing tadpole.

The second detective duck mystery finds Willow looking for her friend's missing son. This was very cute! I loved the way it introduced kids to nature with frogs' growth from tadpoles, and environmental contamination.

Willow the duck is on the case! Willow works to gather all the facts, not just make up stories, to solve the case of the Franny's missing tadpole. It includes information about lifecycles and protecting our waters, with just enough mystery that young readers could solve the case on their own. At moments, I wished it leaned into the jokes -- more Tad the teen -- and mystery instead of just on the surface level.

Detective Duck is at it again. Tad the tadpole is missing, so Detective Duck is on the case. She with the help of many of the Pond Squad go looking for him. While searching they encounter some weird blue/green plant that makes it hard to breathe and some humans. In the end Detective Duck finds Tad, the missing human’s glasses and helps to rid the pond of the harmful plant.

I really enjoyed the first book and this one was also cute. It had a good message. I think readers will enjoy this one too.

I was actually really looking forward to my foray into the world of <i>Detective Duck</i>. I’m not usually the sort of person who picks up a book without having read the first book in the series. In this particular instance, though, I don’t think reading the first book could have saved <i>The Case of the Missing Tadpole.</i>

While I’m not entirely sure why, I can’t help feeling that this book would have been infinitely better as a graphic novel. I was so disappointed with the writing and the characters that perhaps replacing the vast majority of it with pictures would truly be a turning point for the whole series.

There’s some good to be said about the messaging attempt Winkler made, focusing in on real and meaningful solutions to problematic pollution. It’s just such a shame that the overall packaging for this message wasn’t that great.

I highly doubt the writing will keep a young reader engaged. There are so many characters thrown at the reader so quickly and the jump from one moment to another is often so scattered. So, this is probably not a book I’d recommend to many people. It’s not the worst, but it’s certainly not good either.