Ten-year-old Kate is excited to chosen as the assistant director in the schools musical: Dragons vs. Unicorns. Even better is her best friend, Birdie, is chosen as the lead unicorn! Kate is a natural science problem solver and she can’t wait to help make it the best musical ever. The only problem is everything starts going wrong and Katie’s quick thinking is the only thing that can save the day and the show. I would recommend this for anyone interested in light beginning mysteries for upper elementary students. It is also a good title for anyone who likes a series. ( )

Little history before the review--soon after I first started leaving my daughter home alone at age 10, she decided to bake cookies while I was gone. I was horrified. So many things could have gone wrong. There could have been a fire or she might have burned herself and there was no adult present to help solve these problems. I calmly told her to never bake without an adult supervising again. The cookies were absolutely delicious though and I enjoyed them. Now to this book of bad parenting. I did not like the main character. She wasn't realistic at all. I don't believe many average 4th graders reading the book can relate to someone who thinks only about Chemistry and even uses similes with Chem terms (Keep things moving as smooth as enzymes). She even wants to run a club--at least that idea fell through. In the story her father leaves after she starts baking brownies, knowing she will be using the oven. I have no respect for a parent who thinks a 4th grader can safely use an oven without supervision and no respect for an author who promotes this. The mother comes home as glass is shattering and does not offer to help clean it up. Cleaning up shattered glass is difficult for an adult. My children were always barefoot around the house and the glass that isn't cleaned up is always found the hard way with the bare feet. I always helped my children clean up broken glass. I cringed when the mother told the daughter to be thorough in her cleaning and then walked away. I thought the plot was dull and I don't believe children fight over the part of assistant director of a school play. I was just too horrified by the bad parenting to enjoy any aspect of this book. ( )