Willa and Woof: Mimi is Missing by Jacqueline Harvey

Title: Willa and Woof: Mimi is Missing

Author: Jacqueline Harvey

Genre: Fiction

Publisher: Puffin

Published: 5^th July 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 128

Price: $12.99

Synopsis: Adventure, imagination and loads of fun.

From the bestselling author of Alice-Miranda comes this humorous and heartfelt series about eight-year-old Willa and her best four-legged friend, Woof!

Willa’s in trouble. Mimi – the famous racing pigeon owned by Frank, her neighbour and best old-aged friend – is missing. And Willa is pretty sure she’s the one who left the cage door open . . .

She’ll need her most creative ideas (along with the help of Tae, her best same-age friend, and her trusty sidekick Woof, the albino Irish Wolfhound) to track Mimi down before Frank finds out!

Can Willa find Mimi before it’s too late?

~*~

Eight-year-old Willa Tait lives with her family in a cul-des-sac, next to a retirement village. Her best same-age friend is Tae, who lives opposite her. She has a best old-age friend at the nursing home her parents work at called Frank, and dog Woof is her best four-legged friend. One day, Willa notices that Frank’s pigeon, Mimi, is missing – Willa is sure she left the door open., and now Frank has disappeared! So, Willa and Woof set out to find Mimi and get her home before Frank realises that she is missing – but how are they going to do it?

The first book in Jacqueline Harvey’s new series, Willa and Woof, introduces us to a delightful new character Willa, and the mysteries she solves, and the fun she has each day. In this book, Willa has to find Mimi before Frank finds out, and she hopes she can do it without anyone finding out – but the shenanigans she gets into mean she has to ask for help. I loved this book – Jacqueline Harvey has a great talent to write for all ages – to the point where readers beyond the target age group are still in love with the books like Kensy and Max or Alice-Miranda, and I think this is fantastic. Her books have such a wide appeal that I think lots of readers are going to fall in love with Willa and Woof.

This series is aimed at junior readers, and I think could be seen as a bridge between Clementine Rose and Alice-Miranda, as it has more text, and fewer illustrations, and are a little bit longer than Clementine Rose. It’s such a delight to see the breadth of these stories, and the continuity of the illustrations and cover art for all the series are done by the same illustrator, which is a lovely connection even though the characters and series are so different. But that is why I like them – because they are different and show how kids experience life differently.

I love these books about friendship, because it shows that there are so many ways to be a friend, so many types of friends, and Willa and Woof is an amazing tribute to friendship, a book that I love as an adult and that I hope younger readers love and see themselves in. I loved that Willa was allowed to make mistakes and explain herself – it shows that it is okay to make mistakes and the bravery it takes to admit to it. I think this book will find lots of readers, and I hope they all enjoy the series, whether they are kids or kids at heart. Looking forward to the next book in the series!