The Sugarcane Kids and the Empty Cage by Charlie Archbold

Title: The Sugarcane Kids and the Empty Cage

Author: Charlie Archbold

Genre: Adventure

Publisher: Text Publishing

Published: 30^th July 2024

Format: Paperback

Pages: 240

Price: $16.99

Synopsis: When you least expect it something surprising will spring out and shock you. Like when you study your dead bug shelf and there’s a live huntsman spider sitting on it. Or when your sausage dog turns up on a secret mission…‘It’s Gloria,’ I say. You can feel the shock hover over the fort like a sulphur gas cloud over a volcano.

Gloria the talkative eclectus parrot is missing from the animal sanctuary, and Anna the massive ‘not an anaconda’ Australian scrub python has vanished from her enclosure at the library. Have they escaped? Or were they stolen?

When Andy and the Sugarcane Kids hear about an illegal native-animal trade, they know they have to investigate—and fast! Gloria and Anna are not only much-loved residents of their small coastal town in far north Queensland, but they also have very particular care needs—their lives could be in danger!

Andy, Eli, Harvey and the twins, Bernie and Fletch, along with Andy’s trusty sausage dog Washington, have their eyes on a prime suspect: the Hench, the fierce, mean new canteen lady who is behaving very strangely. Can the Sugarcane Kids follow the clues to discover what is going on? Will they find Gloria and Anna in time? And what unexpected dangers lie in wait for them? Find out in this exciting new Sugarcane Kids adventure.

~*~

Welcome back to north Queensland and the world of the Sugarcane Kids – Andy, Eli, Harvey, and the twins, Bernie and Fletch, best friends who spend their time going on grand adventures and solving mysteries in their area. One day, they find out about the illegal trade in native animals, around the same time as their teacher and canteen lady mysteriously disappear. Their teacher is replaced by Declan Nightweasel, who seems a little odd – his instant charm seems to have them captured and enthralled, unlike the new canteen lady, the Hench, who has a mean streak and behaves very strangely. Soon, though, two of the local animals – Gloria, the eclectus parrot and Anna, the Australian scrub python who lives in the library, have gone missing. Each animal has specific care needs, and the Sugarcane Kids are determined to find out who has taken them and why.

As the Sugarcane Kids follow the clues, they are faced with a range of obstacles. Various family issues – sibling rivalries, stepfamily issues, and being grounded present challenges, yet the kids are able to work out how to get around these obstacles, using their ingenuity to convince their parents to let them ride around their town to spy on whoever they think is involved in the illegal trade ring – though like any good mystery, there are red herrings thrown in that make readers and the characters question what they know. Other obstacles occur at school, in class and the canteen, as they try to work out what their new teachers are up to immediately following the disappearance of Anna and Gloria.

The Sugarcane Kids examines themes of teamwork, native animals, and the illegal trade that leads to these animals being sent all over the world to people who cannot care for them, and who just want exotic pets, with wider implications about the illegality of any trade or breeding of animals or pets that creates harm in anyway. It focuses on animal safety, and keeping animals in their natural habitats, or where they are going to be cared for, instead of being sold to the highest bidder who wants a pet that is very different to a cat or a dog. I think this novel handles this topic well, explaining to kids that it is bad, and native animals should not be traded by people like the villains in this book, creating an overarching theme of animal protection for all animals. Charlie has also created clever adult characters, where we think we know what they are up to, but it is quite the opposite, and the misleads make the novel and mystery work well. Everything the reader needs to know is revealed when we need to know it, ensuring that the clues are spaced throughout the novel in the lead up to the resolution of the novel.

The second novel in the Sugarcane Kids series is full of fun and mystery, and key messages about friendship, cooperation, and conservation, as well as animal protection. It also celebrates diversity, as Eli and his family are Balinese and celebrate Nyepi Day, something that is talked about early in the novel. Each character has their own background and family history, and that makes the diversity richer, as we gain insight into a range of ways of living, and the differences that make people interesting amidst the common interests that can unite people like Andy and his friends. This series will engage reader on a variety of levels, from friendship to interests, to mystery and everything in between that make life engaging and fun. I found that this book was engaging, and filled with humour and fun as well as mystery. Combining these elements has created a highly engaging story for middle grade readers who like mysteries with a twist.

What I like about mystery books for children is the variety of plots they use, and the different mysteries they explore. Each genre has a different kind of mystery used, and is always one that the child characters are able to solve using their skills and what they have access to. In this book, it is as though Andy and his friends have access to things the adults don’t, or at least notice things that the adults in their lives don’t, particularly in this novel. The parents are preoccupied with babies and worrying about missing animals and other issues to act, or at least act in a meaningful way. I did like that they were present throughout and also enjoyed how Andy and his friends convinced their parents to let them look into illegal animal trade without letting them know what they were really doing.

This is a fun book that fans of the series will love, and that will hopefully draw new readers into the series as well.