Agent Zaiba Investigates: The Missing Diamonds

"I wanted to think of something that is not fantasy. A lot of the books we were talking about are fantasy, but this is a classic mystery. It’s a good one for kids who are into Nancy Drew , or for parents who grew up reading Nancy Drew and want to introduce their kids to a more modern mystery series. It’s written by Annabelle Sami, and Xenia Starr is the narrator. She does a great job bringing all the different characters to life for listeners. There are a lot of different accents that come into play, and she balances all of those well. The series is set in the UK and this first book is set at a fancy hotel. The main character, whose name is Zaiba, is really interested in becoming a detective, and is always looking for a mystery. They’re at the hotel having a mehndi party for her cousin’s coming marriage. Another guest at the hotel, a fancy actress from America, has some diamonds stolen. So Zaiba gets on the case. It’s a good series for a wide age range. I’d say maybe six or seven year olds could be interested in it, too. There are a lot of interesting mysteries that happen in the different books in the series: there’s a haunted house one, there’s one that’s set at a village fair where there’s a cooking contest and something gets poisoned. They’re a really good introduction to the mystery genre. My kids definitely are drawn to fantasy . They’ll read fantasy graphic novels and fantasy more broadly. One of the things that they’ve talked about is that there can be scary things happening in those stories, but it’s not too scary for them because they know it’s not real. That separation helps them, versus listening to contemporary fiction where there are more real life things happening. So fantasy can let them read something that has more of an adventure to it, but it helps that it’s not so realistic. My daughter is listening to the Percy Jackson audiobooks now. She started with all the Rick Riordan Presents books, and she’s gotten really into Greek mythology . She’s also both enjoyed Medusa by Katherine Marsh, and Sparrows in the Wind by Gail Carson Levine. They’re fun stories, but you’re not going to be in the labyrinth pursued by dangerous monsters, so you can have that imaginary world separate from this world. The whole fantasy genre is great because you can access so many different worlds."