Miss Mary-Kate’s Guide to Monsters: The Trouble with the Two-Headed Hydra by Karen Foxlee, illustrated by Frieda Chiu

Title: Miss Mary-Kate’s Guide to Monsters: The Trouble with the Two-Headed Hydra

Author: Karen Foxlee, illustrated by Frieda Chiu

Genre: Fantasy, Adventure

Publisher: Allen and Unwin

Published: 1^st November 2022

Format: Paperback

Pages: 304

Price: $14.99

Synopsis: Miss Mary-Kate Martin might be anxious, but she’s not scared of monsters. Travelling the globe with her famous archaeologist mother, Mary-Kate helps solve legendary problems in this fun fantasy adventure suitable for fans of the Travelling Bookshop or the Magnolia Moon series.

Mary-Kate and her mother are visiting Galinios, an idyllic Greek Island filled with history and surrounded by the shimmering Aegean Sea. An ancient mosaic has been unearthed at the local sardine processing plant and Professor Martin must investigate, leaving Mary-Kate to enjoy a few days of sunshine and antiquity.

But a message asking for help changes everything. A wrecked boat and smashed jetty have recently disrupted life on this tranquil island and point to a monster-sized mystery. Could the local legend of the Two-Headed Hydra be more than a story? If so, what could make this historically serene sea creature so angry?

Armed with her glitter pens and strawberry-scented notebook, Miss Mary-Kate Martin is determined to find answers. She might be scared of heights, but there is no problem too big for her to solve.

The second mystery story in this delightful fantasy-adventure series from the award-winning and bestselling author of Lenny’s Book of Everything and Dragon Skin, with lively line illustrations by Freda Chiu.

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In the second installment of Miss Mary-Kate’s Guide to Monsters, we’re off to Greece to seek out a two-headed hydra rumoured to be causing trouble for the inhabitants of Galinios. While her archaeologist mother investigates an ancient mosaic found at a sardine plant, Mary-Kate befriends Nikos, and together, they explore the island and follow the stories about the hydra and the incidents around the island that are disrupting life – which coincides with the grand plans of Katarina Kyrios – whose intentions are not so innocent. Mary-Kate and Nikos are determined to solve the mystery of what is going on and help the hydra – but can they do it before it is too late?

Miss Mary-Kate is a series that middle grade readers will love. It’s one of the series that doesn’t address COVID – but I think that is because it could take place at any time in the last thirty years. I have noticed that it doesn’t have anything in the books to date it too much, which adds to its timelessness, allowing readers a different kind of reading experience. The second book shows Mary-Kate as anxious as she is in the first, as she has to do things a certain way at times to make sure nothing goes wrong. The way this is represented lets readers know that it is okay to feel anxious and worried at times, because nothing is ever going to be perfect or go right all the time. It’s a reassuring book because it allows Mary-Kate to step outside of her comfort zone, meet new people, and I liked that Nikos was caring and let her explain her anxiety and helped her through it – it shows that there are people out there who can help.

But one thing that Mary-Kate is not afraid of is the monsters she looks for so she can help them. She helped the Woolington Wyrm, and now she wants to help the Two-Headed Hydra and save her from those who want to harm her. She determined to find answers, because for Mary-Kate, there’s no problem she can’t try to solve. I loved this book that was infused with archaeology and Greek mythology, and the different ways myths can and have been interpreted and shared. I loved the way Nikos and Mary-Kate became friends, and when the story showed her making sacrifices with her lucky things to achieve her goal – it showed that she was able to grow and cope without things but that she would always know that they had given her comfort and strength. It’s the little things that are important in this book, and the reassuring nature of the story that makes it comforting. It reassures us that we are not alone in our worries, and that it is okay to ask for help if you need it. And it lets us know to seek out the people who can help and that friends come in all shapes and sizes, and from all over the world.

The second book in the Miss Mary-Kate is lots of fun, and I am looking forward to seeing where this series goes, and how Mary-Kate grows across the series. It will be interesting to see if she encounters her friends that she makes in each book again, but what I also love is that even though this is a series, the books can be read – I feel – in any order as they don’t appear to have an ongoing storyline so far. It will be interesting to see if one develops though, and I look forward to seeing what happens in subsequent books. Another great read!