The Vanishing Village

'The Vanishing Village' by Sarah Dixon was my first experience with the Usborne Puzzle Adventures: brightly illustrated mystery stories for primary school readers that are unique because of their reader interaction - on every page a question is asked of the reader to solve, whether it be the decoding of a secret message, the piecing together of a puzzle, or the finding of an object hidden somewhere in the illustrations. This book (and all of the others in this series) promotes problem-solving and lateral thinking, combined within a story that is suitably atmospheric and spooky.Jay and Ben are staying with their Aunt Hetty in the village of Little Snoozing, a place little more than a hamlet, but surrounded by all that a mystery-lover would expect: solitary standing stones, misty moors, deserted manor houses and ruined castles - just describing it makes me want to go and read it! When the two go exploring one day, they find themselves hopelessly lost in the mist, but stumble down into a strangely old-fashioned village that is not marked on their map. Finding a cozy inn and feeling welcomed by the innkeeper and his boy Thomas, the two decide to stay the night - but the following day they awake to find themselves asleep on the ground of the moor.Their story quickly travels about Little Snoozing, and Ben and Jay are drawn into a mystery surrounding their vanishing village - there *was* once a village in the valley, but why has it disappeared? Why can't anyone get back in? And how can the two release it from its 'time-slip' imprisonment?The illustrations by Brenda Haw should entice both kids and adults - she uses bright, cheerful colours for Little Snoozing, dark, dismal browns and greys for Creville Manor, and indigos and purples to wonderfully capture the other-worldliness of the vanishing village. Even the standing stones in the bright light of day seem strange and mysterious.All in all, I would recommend this for those who have to be coaxed into a love of books - the simple yet spooky story, the great cartoonish illustrations and the interactive nature of the puzzles make this a great treat. Parents and kids can easily work through it together, with a pen and paper to work out the clues, and hopefully it will become to you what it is for me - an old favourite.

This is a very engaging book for children and a fun read for adults as well. The story is told with a combination of text and comic style illustrations, and there are problems to solve throughout the book. I read this to my first grader and she needed a lot of help with the clues, but I think an older child could read this book and find the clues independently. The illustrations remind me a lot of the Tin Tin series.