The Mystery of the Icy Paw Prints

Harper Paris's The Mystery of the Icy Paw Prints is a snowy little mystery for 5 year olds about twins who find strange tracks in Alaska.

What happens

Ethan and Ella Briar are travelling around the world with their mum and dad. Their mum writes about each place for the newspaper back home. Alaska is their eighth stop and the first time in ages they've been back in their own country. But home is still four thousand miles away, and the twins are feeling a bit homesick (who wouldn't be?).

Then the hire car breaks down in a snowy forest with no phone signal. Help arrives on a sled pulled by six huskies! A girl called Malina and her mum take the Briars back to the little inn they run in their village.

That night, something steals the neighbours' fish supper straight out of a cooler. And it isn't the first time.

Ethan and Ella LOVE a mystery. Ella draws the paw prints in her purple notebook. They check them against the sled dogs' prints (four toes, not five). Then Malina's grandma's old sketchbook turns up a match that nobody believes, because that animal isn't supposed to live anywhere near here!

It's a lovely early chapter book. The chapters are short, the sentences are simple, and there's always a new clue to keep little readers turning the page.

There's lots of real Alaska tucked in too. Seeing a huge mountain from a small plane. The sun not coming up until nearly lunchtime in winter. Bread baked with blueberries and blackberries. Your reader will pick up a lot without even noticing.

The answer to the mystery is very sweet, and it fits rather nicely with a pair of homesick twins. Nobody ends up in trouble.

Got a little one who likes to play detective? This is a gentle place to start.

What to read next

Fancy a safari next? The Mystery of the Lion's Tail has Ethan and Ella in Kenya, getting up at dawn to look for lions.