Pip Bartlett's Guide to Sea Monsters (Pip Bartlett, #3) by Jackson Pearce, Maggie Stiefvater
Published by Scholastic Press on June 26th 2018
ISBN: 0545709326
Pages: 176
Goodreads

This is the third installment of the Pip Bartlett’s series on different monsters and magical creatures.  The focus and setting of this story is the seaside and creatures associated with the sea.  Pip and her older cousin Callie are spending a seaside vacation with Pip’s best friend Tomas and his family.  Pip’s ability to understand non-human creatures helps assist the small town and it’s aquarium as it becomes the target of vandals and bizarre happenings.   The theme of missing family and “being homesick” runs through the human and sea creature story lines.

The book layout is similar to the others in the series, with short chapters interspersed with illustrative pages representing a sea monster guide that shows various sea monsters, corresponding to the story that provides sizes, personal habits and other fun facts.  There was an abrupt transition of scene and setting between Chapters 4 and 5 that proved jarring.  It also seemed unclear what the actual ages of Tomas’s triplet brothers were throughout the story.   Fans of Pip Bartlett won’t be deterred from this seaside mystery by those few quibbles.

 

Reviewed by Sheila Dube, Springvale Public Library, Springvale