Okay okay, just one more Australian chapter book series this year, I promise. No, not Billie’s main series. Or her best friend’s series. That’s like, over fifty books I still have to import. The other other one. The mystery one.

Billie B Mysteries is a six-book sequel series to the popular (in Australia) early chapter book series Billie B Brown. Billie is older in this series, so Mysteries is age 6-9 compared to Billie’s 5-8. Superstar Australian Children’s Laureate Sally Rippin and just as super and star illustrator Aki Fukuoka spearhead all of these series, by the way.

Premise

Billie solves mysteries with her three friends in the Secret Mystery Club. One of her three friends is her best friend, Jack.

Adding “Mystery” to your series seems like a very Scooby Doo 80s/90s type of thing, but I’m not complaining.

Characters

The Secret Mystery Club (Billie, Jack, Mika, and Alex)

The whole gang in one section, from Billie going clockwise. Mostly because I couldn’t find good individual pics of them.

Billie – The founder of club (and also the main character the series follows). She likes solving mysteries so much she made up one just to start the club. She gets emotional a lot.
Jack – Billie’s best friend and sole supporter a lot of the time when Billie gets too emotional. He’s really loyal.
Mika – Their Japanese friend. I don’t like saying that “being Japanese” is her main character trait, but it kind of is. Her knowing how to read kanji and having a house with a pretty backyard and a mom that gives them Pocky matters a whole lot. Mika is also really nice. The Sophie kind of nice that when she gets mad, it’s a big deal. (It only happens twice.)
Alex – Birds and math are his specialties. This is a direct line from book 4. He also has a voice recorder.

Series Breakdown

(1) Spooky House – Billie makes up that her neighbor’s house is haunted to have a mystery to solve and start her club. Her friends are not happy about the made up part.
(2) Code Breakers – The Club gets a series of cryptic notes. Billie is jealous that her friends solve them before she does.
(3) Playground Detectives – The club finds out who put leaves in a classmate’s sandwich. A proper mystery this time.
(4) Strawberry Thief – The SMC investigate who stole the strawberries from Mika’s garden.
(5) Stolen Stash – Someone has stolen money from the principal’s office. Did Alex really do it?
(6) Treasure Hunt – The SMC (plus a new member) are asked to find a time capsule hidden somewhere at school.

I’ll have to read more of Billie’s main series to see if Mika and Alex show up more. I feel like I’m missing some references in a few places.

Mystery History

Or maybe I am complaining. I’m no mystery buff, but any junior detective could tell you that mystery is a very old-timey genre in chapter books. You’ve got your usual suspects Nancy and Nancy and The Hardy Boys and The Hardy Boys and Cam Jansen and Cam Jansen. Those A-Z guys. Some pret-ty old series, all things considered.

Newer series? There’s… Hilde? Maybe Ada Lace? Maybe? I’m grasping at straws here. I think mystery has lost popularity. Maybe because mystery is such a formulaic genre, they don’t have the time to really flesh things out in the span of a chapter book. Maybe they’ve lost their charm. I, for one, haven’t enjoyed many of those mystery series I’ve read so far.

At least Billie B Mysteries keeps things simple and fun. One twist or hurdle a book. Plenty of time for characters. Pretty chill. I had a good time with these.

Cool Stuff

Continuity
I think this is the closest example of hard continuity I’ve seen in a chapter book series. Each book (besides 6) ends with a new mystery the club finds, and the next book picks up right after. Some events from previous books (and series) are also mentioned, but not explained. The mysteries each book also escalate, getting more and more “serious” each time.

Emotions
Billie gets jealous. Mika gets angry. Alex gets cocky. Jack gets nervous. All that and more. These kids have some real realistic emotions they go through every book. These are very believable characters.

Simple Mysteries
I mentioned this above, but it bears repeating. The word count doesn’t water things down, it just keeps things basic. One red herring. One easy solution. Lots of time for speculation in between.

The Principal Even Solves A Micro-Mystery
Billie’s principal deduces Billie wrote an anonymous note to her in book 5 because it was on small diary paper in sparkly pen ink. This makes me think she’s known the principal outside of this series.

Conclusion

Oh, what’s this? The graphic novel typhoon that has hit so many of my beloved series landed in Australia just a couple months ago. At least this time both the original author and illustrator are involved. Maybe, just maybe, these won’t be super-direct adaptations. Maybe if they’re popular, we’ll get more than six books this time! Seeing more of Fukuoka-san’s art doesn’t bother me.

But what about the original series? The one with more words and less art. Should you even bother with it now that it’s being adapted into a graphic novel?

I think so. You can get them all right now for a reasonable price. It’s probably the shortest mystery chapter book series, so it’s accessible. You don’t have to have read the other Billie series to get these. (Even if you really have been wanting to.)

Now I have to go solve the mystery of what to blog about next month. Will we go back to France or maybe Colombia? Will we watch something new? Will I ever decide to start interviewing authors? I’ll have to pull out my magnifying glass for this one.

Until then~