Book review on Viva Durant and The Secret of the Silver Buttons by Ashli St. Armant
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
My Thoughts after Reading
This is a middle-grade story about a girl who spends the summer with her grandmother. She reads in the papers about an old man who was convinced that the nursery rhyme Ms Mary Mack gave clues to his grandmother’s missing inheritance.
While Viva gets stuck into life with her Grandmother, running errands and visiting places, she finds opportunities to investigate the history behind the lyrics. She learns about some people and their lives in New Orleans in the late 19th Century.
The listening experience was multi-dimensional. There was music, singing and sound effects to bring scenes to live. The narrator Bahni Turpin brought each character to live with her tone and voice. I felt I was right there in New Orleans. Thoroughly enjoyable.
Goodreads Blurb
Viva Durant, New Orleans’ youngest detective, is on a quest to solve a jazzy mystery involving hidden treasure, while exploring the city’s unique culture, history, and music. This family-friendly audio original features original jazz music from the creator, Ashli St. Armant, and an enthusiastic performance from Audible Hall of Fame narrator, Bahni Turpin.
Plucky 14-year-old Viva Durant heads to New Orleans every summer to spend time with her loving but stern grandmother, known as Gram. After Gram reads Viva an article in the local paper about a missing treasure related to the world-famous song, “Miss Mary Mack,” Viva traverses the Crescent City on an epic adventure to solve the mystery. Along the way she meets some of the city’s most colorful characters as her journey takes her to the French Quarter, a jazz club, a creepy cemetery, and even the circus. Can Viva rise to the occasion and solve this musical mystery? Listeners will find Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons a joy to listen to!
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