Bernice Peppercorn’s imagination fills her mind and her notebooks with adventure and intrigue. She sees crimes where there are none and races to the local police station daily to fulfil her civic duty. When a real robbery is committed in town, Bernice dives into detective mode and stumbles across vital clues that could help find the thieves. No one believes her except Ike, a one-legged fisherman … fisherman who lives down at the wharf.
Bernice Takes a Plunge is an exciting and humorous adventure for middle grade readers.
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When I picked up this book I wasn’t sure what to think. This definitely isn’t my usual genre but the author reached out to me and asked if I’d like to read it so I decided to give it a go and I’m so glad I did!
Bernice Takes A Plunge was a delightful tale about an imaginative girl with aspirations to be an author, a detective, and basically anything else that caught her fancy. I loved seeing the world through her eyes and following her around on her numerous adventures.
Even though this is a book aimed toward children, as an adult I really enjoyed it. The plot was interesting and all tied together in a satisfying way, and I never found myself bored or wanting to put it down. I would recommend this for anyone looking for a lighthearted read or a lovely story to share with their children.
What a perfectly fun and delightful read! This is a perfect book for older elementary and middle grade readers. Bernice is a fun-loving, mischievous, and creative character. The mystery of the stolen jewels was also interesting and attention-keeping. This is one I’m looking forward to sharing with my grandbabies. Highly recommend!
5 Stars
Bernice Takes a Plunge is a really wonderful story by Ann Harth. This book is aimed at children between 8 and 12 years old- but really can be enjoyed by all ages- as I thoroughly enjoyed the story and I am waaay older than that.
This is a delightful and original adventure- full of fun, mystery, a little drama, endearingly quirky characters, and humour- with a really interesting storyline.
Bernice Peppercorn steals the show here- she is just fantabulous! A little mini sleuth with quite the imagination. She is so obsessed with mystery and crime that she tends to jump to conclusions. She has quite the reputation for ‘reporting’ crime, where there isn’t any. So, what happens when a real robbery happens in town? Will Bernice find the clues that she needs and track down the robbers? This is definitely worth the read to find out how everything plays out in the end.
Supercalifragilistic!
Thank you, Ann Harth!
How insanely cute does this cover look?! I haven’t read many mystery/adventure books for children before, but seeing as mystery is one of my favourite genres, I was dying to see what this was like – and it was actually better than I imagined! I found this to be perfect, not only for setting up a child to be a mystery fan in their adult life, but to also encourage children to get deeply immersed in an action-packed book from beginning to end.
This is such a delightful little book about a young girl with big ambitions. From start to end, I admired the strong female lead character who is such a fabulous role model for children (not to mention adorable!), the action-packed, mystery adventure and the beautiful, easy to read tone from the author. I thoroughly enjoyed Bernice’s journey, and especially how she was such a bright, clever girl who doesn’t hesitate but to question everything around her. This story most certainly brightened up my day – the author has nailed it!
‘Bernice Peppercorn’s imagination fills her mind and her notebooks with adventure and intrigue‘ (From the back cover of Bernice Takes A Plunge.)
Bernice loves to write. To get ideas she takes careful notes of the goings on in her town and it really isn’t her fault that the suspicious things she observes and reports to Sergeant Bailey turn out to have explanations not involving kidnappings and detonators after all.
Bernice arrives on the first page totally believable and loveable. This middle grade book has everything: an annoying brother (why are brothers annoying anyway- is it some sort of rule?), a celebrity in town, an intriguing theft, a strange fisherman with a wooden leg, a mysterious island, and high drama on the open sea. We even have a moral conundrum as Bernice fibs a bit, well, a lot to the strange fisherman, but we smile as she struggles to work out this dilemma. As for the plunge business .. Ah, well, you see, that’s all in the book!
‘Suddenly my hat was tugged off my head. A fisherman had hooked it as he cast into the ocean .. A dolphin leaped into the air and grabbed the brightest thing he could see. He tore it from the hook …’ From Chapter 10.
This is a fun read not just for middle graders but also for parents who may well recognise endearing but perhaps also exasperating traits in their own aspiring heroines. I finished it hoping that author Anne Harth will bring Bernice back in a sequel. And here are questions to ponder:
Did leaping dolphins really snatch all of Bernice’s lost hats?
Will Bernice’s special goo really cure her friends chickenpox?
Anne Harth, creator of Bernice, writes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults. ‘Strong interesting female characters creep into most of her books, and many arrive with a sense of humour.’ (Afterword, About the Author p. 104.)