Fionna Cosgrove, Sadie and the Secret of the Swamp, Dragonfly Publishing, October 2024, 184 pp., RRP $17.99 (pbk), ISBN 9781763552524
Sadie and the Secret of the Swamp is an adventure story which is somewhat grisly and macabre too.
Sadie is disappointed to be spending her summer holidays at DeVolfe Nature Sanctuary instead of at the beach with her cousins. But this holiday destination is worse than Sadie even imagined. The cabin is smelly and rundown, the resident Professor is outrageously angry and nasty, the swamplands smell putrid and everywhere around, the ground is covered in gunky swamp mud. Why does the swamp smell so bad and what has happened to the Professor’s daughter who disappeared? Where has Sadie’s brother gone and what secrets are her parents keeping from her?
Sadie befriends another young guest, Newt, who has similar apprehensions, and together they embark on a dangerous adventure to explore the swamp and find out what secrets lie within.
Plot twists and suspenseful, scary scenarios keep the reader turning pages right to the unexpected and abrupt ending. But the intensity of the story is lightened by Sadie’s sarcastic and self-deprecating humour and the caring friendship that she forms with Newt.
This book is certainly for middle graders (9-12 years old) who enjoy the excitement of a scary adventure story and can understand that this bizarre story is quite removed from reality.
Reviewed by Barbara Swartz
