This book was so cute. The illustrations are bright and colorful which kept my son’s attention. The story was set up to keep us engaged and wanting to read more.

"Brody & Bella The Sibling Detectives", by Jeffrey William Sparks, is a cute children's picture book about a brother and a sister who doubt their parents' advice and rules, and decide to investigate the reasoning behind them. Do they have to go to bed early so their parents can stay up and have fun? Do they need to eat their vegetables so that all the candy is left over for their parents? The questions they ask are cute, and relatable to 4 , 5, and maybe 6 year olds. The book is essentially about children's curiosity and questioning of rules, which as a mother and educator, feel that every child needs a good dose of, despite meaning more hard work on the adults.

The illustrations, by Eleonora Petrova, are cute and playful, and pair well with the tone of the book. This was a cute little story, one that I'm sure my daughter will enjoy when I introduce it to her. Thank you to NetGalley and BookBuzz.net for the e-arc. All opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and the independent publisher for accepting my request to read and review Brody & Bella The Sibling Detectives and the Mystery of the Parents' Big Hoax.

Author: Jeffrey William Sparks
Published: 12/02/22
Genre: Children's Fiction

That noise you think you heard was me laughing. This story, illustrations, and reactions are adorable. I love that the author took the simplest issues all kids have. The answers regarding space were a personal hit. I will say, without spoiling, the handling of the Tooth Fairy hands down was a winner.

This is absolutely gift able to parents, grandparents and of course babysitters.

This rhyming picture book tells an imaginative story about 2 siblings who pretend to be detectives. There is some factual information about outerspace and healthy nutrition. The story ends with the question "is the toothfairy real or a myth". I don't love when books go into those questions, especially when readers may be a different levels of understanding or beliefs when reading the story, but it doesn't answer that question there is just a picture of a tooth fairy on the next page with no words and that is the end of the book. The font is fairly large and is usually black on white background. I do think that the attempt to write in rhyme meant that some more challenging words needed to be used when the purpose of a rhyming book is usually to make it more fluent and easier to read. Words like: hoax, bizarre and pace are words that were used to make the rhyming scheme work, but are not easily decoded and some incorrect rhymes like suspicion and kitchen (also very challenging words) would also be confusing for young or struggling readers. The idea behind the story is good and the illustrations are nice so parents looking for a new bedtime story might think this one is great, but I'm not sure that this book would be a good fit for school/classroom libraries. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read and review this book.