I read this book as an adult and will certainly be recommending it to students in our school library. Although it has been edited to a reading age of 8 I feel that the story itself would be more suited to children of around that age and that older students with a younger reading ability might like the story but find it a little on the young side for them. A mystery, small crimes, portals and puffins, The Puffin Portal is another in this illustrated series about The Griffin family and their amazing map. Grace has been keen to get in on the action, but has been too young to be a qualified warden. A small town claims a monster has been terrorising them. Grace investigates, keen to finally prove herself. All is not how it seems however and Grace stumbles across a plot not only to undermine her entire family as Wardens but to steal the Griffin Map too. The Puffin Portal is not only a good follow up to The Griffin Gate, but a good book in its own right. It is able to introduce readers to this interesting new world and the characters that inhabit it, whilst also expanding on what came before for those that have already experienced the first book. It also comes with some wonderful illustrations by Natalie Smillie that really helps to bring it all alive.

Grace, at only 13, attends to the blue lights, and her mum and brother Bren attend to the emergencies. All of them have been very busy as lights are popping up all over Moreland. Grace has been responding to many little reports of theft. A jar of jam, a roll of wire, a loaf of bread or other small items.

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Grace is dying to go on a mission for real when she gets older, but will she have to live in her brother's shadow for long?

The mystery of The Puffin Portal is a fun series of crimes that on the surface seem unconnected, but thanks to some clues laid out by Hardy, and some inventive investigation by Grace, the answers soon start to unfold; allowing the younger readers the opportunity to try and figure things out before everything is revealed. Now she has proven herself to attend the smaller crimes, she finds herself with a puzzling problem that leads to a castle ruin. Intriguing read and perfect for reluctant readers. Watson is one of the best characters in the book, but what draws you in is the steampunk setting and the other villages that don't seem to be as technologically advanced as them. Where Grace has gone has a secret the townsfolk want to keep to themselves. An age-old story of a younger sibling trying to prove herself, with an ingenious fantasy twist. The setting is a place of mechanical animals, inventive gadgets, and portals. A touch of Steampunk!This novella-length and illustrated story focused on the Griffin family, who use a series of magical maps and gates to fight crime all over their kingdom. The youngest family member, Grace, is not allowed to go on missions until she turns fifteen and instead must spend her time either in simulations or hearing the praise her older brother, Bren, receives for his crime-fighting contributions. For years Grace's family have been wardens of the Griffin map, using its teleport technology to help people and fight crime across the land of Moreland. At thirteen, Grace is too young become a warden, but she longs to go on missions herself. After all, if her brother Bren can do it, why can't she? So when Grace finds herself alone with the map when a distress call comes in, she jumps at the chance to prove she's up to the task. But the map transports Grace to a remote village where nothing is quite as it seems. Has she landed right in the middle of a treacherous scheme? About This Edition ISBN: This was such a great sci-fi, mystery read (I've tagged it as sci-fi because it's set in the future and has lots of mechanical devices which have been invented rather than the characters using magic to aid them but it could also fall into the category of fantasy). Having just recently been trained up and allowed to go out on simple missions on her own, Grace has been looking into a string of odd robberies across Moreland. There have been no clues left at the scenes, and only strange items have gone missing, such as a tool here and there, and the occasional item of food. Determined to find out if there could be a connection between these crimes Grace sets out to find answers with the help of her robotic raven Watson.