the dopple ganger chronicles: the secret of indigo moon review

 you may remember my review of the first in the dopple ganger chornicles series, now saskie and sadie dopple, along with erik morissey ganger return in a second installment entitled, the secret of indigo moon.

the press release has the following to say about the book...

erik morissey ganger, famed explorer and detective (well, in his dreams), and his mischief-making sidekicks, twins sadie and saskia dopple, didn’t go looking for a secret tunnel beneath the school. they never intended to make the acquaintance of a shifty private eye with a nose for trouble. it wasn’t part of the plan to come face to face with an old enemy, one with an agenda of his own that could destroy them all. and unraveling the “secret of indigo moon” was the farthest thing from their minds.  at isambard dunstan’s school for wayward children, these things just seem to happen.

if you remember this series combines graphic novel style art and text with regular book-style text. it takes a little getting used to as you read. i'm used to skipping over the pictures to focus on the text. in these novels, the pictures actually move the plot forward so it is important to give time and attention to the illustrations.

i can see how this style of novel would encourage a reluctant reader. rather than doing a lot of work to picture characters and action in your head, the artist helps you along with the graphic portions of the book. tessa and tate are already interested in these types of books in the pre-reading and early reading stages.

i think that zoe is ready to handle the content of these novels but i would definitely wait to introduce them to anyone younger than eight. the bad guys have guns and a definite intent to kill. of course all's well that ends well, but i really don't want my kids to get a cavalier attitude about guns, particularly living in this area of chicago.

overall, i think the story is pretty good. it is full of suspense, similar to lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate events. i think zoe will really enjoy reading the collection. for the rest of the kids, i will definitely wait until they are older.

i received a free copy of this book for the purpose of this review because of my participation in the tyndale blog network. regardless, the thoughts and opinions expressed here are purely my own.