The Book Bandit: A Chapter Book Mystery
A Phoebe Chen Mystery 1
by Caron Pescatore
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Pub Date 27 Mar 2023 | Archive Date 07 Jun 2023

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Description
Eight-year-old Phoebe Chen has a new mystery to solve. Can you help?
Phoebe loves anything that involves brainstorming, like jigsaw puzzles, riddles, and word searches. Her lifelong dream is to solve mysteries like her detective father—or ND, her favorite girl detective. So when a friend’s prized autographed book disappears, Phoebe immediately offers to take on the case.
Enlisting the help of her BFF, Phoebe gets to work searching for clues, interviewing witnesses, and compiling a list of suspects. But when the evidence implicates a friend, she realizes being a detective isn’t all fun and games. Phoebe must find concrete evidence before she points the finger. Can she do it, or will the book bandit get away with the dastardly deed?
Buy The Book Bandit today, and help Phoebe solve her first mystery!
Available Editions
ISBN | 9781958043103 |
PRICE | $3.99 (USD) |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews

This was such a fun book for the you get readers! Love the illustrations so much, really brings more to the story. This will keep the kids entertained for sure which I’m sure they’ll race through at no time!

This was a super cute chapter book. I really like the font for the chapter titles. The graphics and pictures are a lot of fun, and the little images throughout the chapters really stand out. It was easy to read for early readers, and was an entertaining story.

Such a cute little book for the littles in your life, it follows eight year old Phoebe Chen and her interest in mystery solving. It addresses some important issues in a kid friendly way and Phoebe finds out whether mystery solving is all it’s really cracked up to be. Full of beautiful illustrations this will be a hit with curious little minds.

Phoebe and Luana are a contrasting fun little sleuthing duo. One was brash, and the other was kinder and more diplomatic. Their sleuthing style was serious but fun, especially when Luana had to temper Phoebe’s method of investigating. What a delightful start to Phoebe’s series. I love this book💝. It was an entertaining and engaging read.

Thank you so much to Caron Pescatore, Booksgosocial & Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.
Phoebe and Luana come across a mystery when their friend Becky finds her cherished and autographed book has gone missing. Together Phoebe and Luana solve the mystery as though they are Nancy Drew, ice cream and all.
This was a fun mystery I really enjoyed the way it unraveled and how they found each step within the investigation. The girls had such different approaches to figuring out what had happened and Luana had to keep forcing Phoebe to concentrate on anything other than ice cream.
I liked the friendship and how close the girls were, it was interesting how in the end the became closer and finally helped include Chloe in the group more. It was really sweet. Phoebe was very funny and very silly always just wanting her ice cream and not having much else on her mind.
This is a really cute mystery book that I think children would really enjoy, it has diversity, it has a great friend group, a fun mystery, some very funny moment and it’s easy and fun to read. I would recommend it if you have a young reader that loves mysteries they’ll get sunk into this one quickly.

My 7 year old niece loved this book! She loved the story, the characters & the detail. She was desperate to keep reading, which is a great sign!
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy to review.
Definitely recommended for 7 years +

I loved the diverse characters, the titles of the chapters and style of the font (its a nice touch to the eye and I appreciate small details l Iike that). The graphics are nicely done. I really enjoyed this book. Phoebe is a great main character. She is very determined but also gets sidetracked with things like icecream (lol i dont blame her!) and it was a nice mystery to solve. I know young readers who love a little mystery will enjoy it as well! Thank you Netgalley and Caron Pescatore for the advance copy!

Cute book that younger readers will love, especially if they love mystery. The book keeps you entertained and new suspects pop up every now and then. Super cute!

Cute cover and graphics within the story. A nice story for younger readers. The formatting was off for my ebook format. Overall, a great addition to anyone's bookshelf.

The Book Bandit: A Phoebe Chen Myster 1 by Caron Pescatore - 5/5
This is an extremely cute mystery chapter book for children. It follows a little girl, Phoebe Chen, as she goes on to solve mysteries. I love that this book addressed issues in a kid friendly manner. The graphics and illustrations are fun and add a little excitement for my children when we come across one. We are just starting to read chapter book, and this is a series I could see my children continuing.
The Book Bandit: A Phoebe Chen Mystery 1 will be available for purchase June 2023

Phoebe Chen and her friend Luana find themselves in the midst of an exciting mystery when their friend Becky informs them that her precious book - autographed by a famous author - is missing!
Intrepid Phoebe seizes this opportunity to investigate, inspired as she is by her father, who is a police detective, and her heroine, Nancy Drew. Luana has a sweet and softer personality, but she ably assists Phoebe in the search for Becky's missing book. Not mention, she has the tough job of making sure that Phoebe's focus stays on their case, rather than on seeking out new opportunities to eat ice cream (which is a major pre occupation of hers!)
As suspects begin to multiply, the girls are faced with the dilemma that it may be one of their other friends who has stolen Becky's book. Along the way, we are also introduced to a boy who loves to read but is teased about it by his friends.
The author does a wonderful job of complicating the case in this fast moving and delightful children's story. She also get points for effortlessly integrating diversity issues without, ahem, making an issue of it. And there are some interesting lessons for children seamlessly woven in here. All in all, it was a fun read, and I look forward to more adventures from Phoebe Chen and her friends!
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