MerTales 4 – The Mysterious Rainbow Thief

Rebecca Timmis's The Mysterious Rainbow Thief is an underwater mystery for 6 year olds about four mermaid friends racing to stop someone stealing all the colour from their town.

What happens

Sandy Starfish is flying her purple octopus kite in the park when it suddenly turns a dull, sad grey. So does every other kite in Cockleshell Cove. Then the letterboxes, the street lamps and the coral gardens start going grey too.

Luckily, Sandy and her best friends have a secret. A meteorite gave each of them a magic power. Pearl can talk to animals, Coral can make currents, Shell can teleport and Sandy can make forcefields. Together they're FINS, the Fish In Need Society.

Sandy loves science and books more than anything. So she tackles the case the way her favourite detective, Merlock Holmes, would. They make a list, look for evidence and check the photos on Pearl's shell-phone. There's a red-and-yellow blur in one of them. A thief!

The plan to catch it is brilliant fun. There's a trap baited with Pearl's sparkly pink comb (poor Pearl). There's a camouflage potion mixed up in Sandy's bedroom lab with her pet octopus, Squidge, in safety goggles. And there's a very grumpy flower with wriggly tentacles.

The best bit is Sandy herself. She's clever and she knows it, and she wants to do EVERYTHING on her own. Her friends keep offering to help and she keeps saying no, until she really can't manage without them. It's a gentle little lesson about teamwork that never feels preachy.

The jokes are almost all sea puns. Fin-tastic, mer-stery, sea-tective, clam-tastic. Some children will groan and some will giggle at every single one (probably both).

There are simple science facts at the end too, about octopus camouflage, rainbows and dugongs. Lovely for a little reader who likes to know how things work.

The friends mention adventures they've already had together, but you don't need to know them to enjoy this one.

What to read next

If your reader liked the FINS gang, the Great Treasure Hunt puts Coral in charge. She turns up with matching team T-shirts for everyone and is completely sure they're going to win.