A Review from an 8 1/2 year old: Echo and the Bat Pack - Treasure in the Graveyard by Roberto Pavanello

Good afternoon everyone! 

My son has decided that he needed to review this book,

 (that we received in the mail yesterday for review), 

right away!
We honestly received the book yesterday,
he read half last night and the rest this morning - he's a quick and good reader :)

I hope you enjoy the summary and thoughts of an 8 1/2 year old :) 

(Because we all know how important it is to have that 1/2 year, right?!)

Echo and the Bat Pack: Treasure in the Graveyard
by Roberto Pavanello
Released on January 28th, 2012
Published by Capstone Press
Genre: Middle Grade Mystery
Source read: Hardback Copy

SUMMARY

(from BN/Kirkus Reviews)

Introducing Echo and his mystery-solving Bat Pack! 

Echo the bat grew up in a library and lives in the Fogville cemetery, where it's usually quiet. He likes quiet because he writes mysteries. Then a mysterious, skull-faced stranger in a black cloak arrives in the middle of the night. He seems to be searching for something. 

When his raven sidekick discovers Echo watching, a scary chase ensues. Thankfully, the Silver kids, Becca, Michael and Tyler, are still awake, and they rescue Echo. 

A series of break-ins in the days that follow prompts neighbors to tell tales of a spooky flying monster in a cloak. Can it be the stranger from the graveyard? 

Echo and his new friends (and the ghost of Captain Trafalgar) work to discover the truth (and maybe a treasure).

SUMMARY from an 8 1/2 year old:  

"There is a bat that flies around being happy and then he likes to go upside down in trees. His name is Echo. While hanging upside down in a tree, he saw a man that was wearing a black cloak and the man had a pickax in his bag. He made a circle out of one big rock. And he said, "Ckaaaa, Ckaaaa!" and a crow came swooping down. And then the man said to the crow, "Did you find it?" And the crow shook his head no. And the bat, who witnessed this strange conversation between the cloaked man and the crow, was too scared to move or fly away. Echo thought, "What are they looking for?" And then the cloaked man and crow spotted Echo and they tried to capture him, but luckily for him, three kids were looking in the window and said to Echo, "Come this way." And Echo wasted no time and followed them and got away from the cloaked man and his crow. 

This is a mystery. 

Echo tells the kids how the crow continues to follow him and that the cloaked man is looking for a map.  So the children and Echo go looking for the map too. That is the mystery - looking for the map. And while they were looking for the map at the graveyard, they find a very helpful Pirate Ghost, who leads them to where the map is. But I'm not going to tell you where.

Once they had the map, the kids got on the computer to further find out what the map was all about - and they discovered that the map is for another mystery! The next morning, the cloaked man found them and that he was still looking for the map. When he saw that they had already found it, he tried to get it. But the Pirate Ghost scared him and the crow away. Before the cloaked man ran away, the kids noticed that he was carrying a box with another mystery in it! 

But figuring out the map and what was in that box is all for the next book!"

8 1/2 year old's thoughts about Treasure in the Graveyard... 

"I kinda liked this book. What I like is that they were able to solve the mystery and I like mysteries. I really liked that there was a lot of cool pictures in the book to go with the story. I wish that there were more books to this series to keep going since it ended with another mystery. 

What I didn't really like about the book is the color of the book-cover, it's too dark.
I give this book, Treasure in the Graveyard, 3 1/2 to 4 stars"