Having read The Painting Puzzle a few months ago I did not have high hopes for this, even if it is about a library.

The plot

There’s not actually a whole lot of plot and the “mystery” is pretty weak even for a children’s book.

The Five are off to the library at Kirrin. Aunt Fanny does a decent job of plugging library services and tells the children she’ll get them signed up with cards, so good on her.

A couple of pages are spent on George tripping and falling.

They get to the library and Timmy isn’t allowed inside so George stays with him outside.

Inside Anne sees a girl tear a page from a book and stuff it in her bag. Rightfully she’s horrified. She tells the girl that that’s not allowed but she runs off.

The four (as George joins them in the end) check out their books and they find out there’s a fundraiser for the library the next day.

Chapter 5 is dedicated to them baking cakes for it.

At the fundraiser they spot the page thief. She admits her crime – she needed a cake recipe for the fundraiser to show off so that the local bakery would hire her dad.

And that’s pretty much it.

The illustrations

There is a different illustrator for this book – Becka Moor instead of Jennifer Jamieson. The Five are similar, but not the same as before. They now have weird noses, but George’s hair looks a bit better.

Painting Puzzle is on the left, Library Mystery on the right.

My thoughts

I gave this an extra star because it’s not as horrendous as The Painting Puzzle. It really doesn’t deserve to be called a mystery, however. The Five don’t actually work anything out – all they do is walk up to the girl and (correctly) accuse her of ripping a page out of a book.

I also smiled at Anne reminding Dick that the last time he made cupcakes they tasted of washing up liquid because he forgot to rinse the tin. That’s actually good characterisation of Dick, based on the original books where he’s not great in the kitchen.

Unfortunately the book continues the bafflingly awful printing style with random words highlighted throughout.