Ariana Treasure: The Missing Book by Jacqueline de Rose-Ahern

Title: Ariana Treasure: The Missing Book

Author: Jacqueline de Rose-Ahern

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Wombat-Rhiza

Published: 5^th March 2025

Format: Paperback

Pages: 50

Price: $10.99

Synopsis: Join Ariana at the Treasure Chest – the best thrift shop in town!

Ariana is excited to hear there is a new kid in town.
She can’t wait to show him around the Treasure Chest.
Can Ariana use the treasures from the thrift shop to help make a new friend and find her missing book?

The Missing Book is the first book in Ariana Treasure early reader series.

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Jacqueline de Rose-Ahern’s new early reader series revolves around a young girl called Ariana Treasure, who lives near her family’s thrift shop, the Treasure Chest. Here, she helps her mum and friends find the things they need from the best thrift shop in town – and Ariana can always find just what people need. The one day, Alex and his mum come into the shop, looking for new things for their house. Ariana has a special book that was her grandfather’s, and when she’s trying to help Alex, it goes missing! Ariana is devastated – she’s determined to find the missing book as well as some new treasures for Alex.

The first book in this new series for early readers is filled with family, fun and sharing, as children who are starting out on a new, independent reading journey delve into relatable worlds and issues that affect them. Like losing a treasured possession, making new friends, and finding ways to share whilst also giving them something special. This story about acceptance and finding ways to connect with people is powerful, and whilst short, it’s message is solid. It shows children that they can share and keep their precious things. That sometimes, it is these precious things that can create a connection with a new friend.

Early reader books like this are a great step on the reading journey, because they can be read alone or with someone, and this series is going to add to the variety of stories out there that people can access. Stories like this are simple yet have layers that readers of all ages can appreciate – whether reading alone, as part of a class set or with an adult in the child’s life. They deal with issues and challenges everyone faces in some way at various stages of their lives. It means that families or classes can talk about a time when they lost something special or made a new friend, for example.

Things like this are why books are so powerful, and why there are some themes and issues that are universal across genre, age and audience – it might just be that the complexity of the challenge changes. So having them start simply as they do in the Ariana Treasure series, it sets kids up on a brilliant reading journey that will help them build empathy.