Following on from The Mystery of Tully Hall and The Secret of Flittermouse Cliffs, The Challenge of Palores Point is the third book in the Great Friends at Grey Owls series by Zöe Billings.

I read this from September to November last year – if you’re wondering why it took me so long to read it I was actually proof reading it, so I was correcting it and making the odd suggestion as I went. Having finished it just in time for the pre-Christmas printing deadline I then entirely forgot about reviewing it!

Palores point

You may well know what palores means, but before I read this book I didn’t. Palores is the Cornish word for the chough.

You also may well have seen choughs in the wild – they are found on the west coast of the UK and Ireland. They are only found in a couple of places on the west coast of Scotland so I’ve never seen a wild chough.

Having read this book however, I seem to be noticing choughs a lot more often. There are two in the wildlife centre near me and recently this book was highlighted to me at work.

I actually thought it said Marcus Harris (aka 70s Julian) at first.

But I’m getting off-topic now.

The palores, aka the chough, is an important element of the book which opens with the friends (Jenny, James, Liz and Barrie) deciding that their school project is going to be about choughs. They choose the bird as they are going to be visiting Cornwall to stay with Jenny’s aunt, who has just sent Jenny an article about the challenges facing choughs in Cornwall.

Cornish Camping and Criminal Catching

In Cornwall the four camp at Aunt Jane’s campsite, which borders a nature reserve. They visit the reserve and learn more about the chough and other wild birds, many of which are under threat not just because of the usual things like habitat loss but also because of their nests being raided for eggs.

Being the conscientious children they are the four decide that they are going to keep a watch for bird egg thieves and soon have some suspects in mind. They put technology to good use again as James has bought a special motion activated trail camera for recording wildlife – but it could just as easily record people. They are also assisted by Anka who they have made friends with in Cornwall.

Despite having an adult nearby the children manage to do a fair bit of night-time surveillance, though somehow the nests are still getting targeted and neither the children nor the camera is able to see the thieves.

At least, not until James notices something on the trail camera recording and just has to go take a look…

My thoughts

To throw in a horrible pun which I’m sure she’s heard many times already – I think that Zöe should be choughed with this book.

It’s another great blend of detective work and adventure alongside the fun of four kids exploring interesting places and enjoying each other’s company. As with the first two books in the series the modern setting means that we can’t get away from technology but it is carefully woven into the story without us having to deal with four kids glued to Tiktok.