The Mona Lisa Mystery by Pat Hutchins

The Mona Lisa Mystery Reviews

• 
  Rachel Gamble

  This book was one of my all time childhood favourites. I borrowed it from the mobile library which came to our village as often as I could get my hands on it. (That makes me sound rather older than I am, I'm only 30). Later in life I talked to my dad about this amazing book full of excitement and adventure and how much I had loved the riotous fun of the main characters all being primary school children. I must have mentioned that I'd never had a copy as my dad then sought out a copy for my 21st birthday.
  That may sound easy but the book has been out of print for years and dad had to trawl a huge number of places before eventually finding a copy being sold online. I still occasionally read it as it feels to me full of the warmth and excitement of childhood and I've read it to my son too. He now reads it alone and loves it too.
  
  Cannot recommend it highly enough. A fantastically fun children's adventure mystery suitable for all ages as far as I'm concerned.
• 
  Mathew

  With a more complex plot than
  Follow That Bus, Hutchins' story of Class 3's trip to Paris and their sleuthing with regards to finding the missing, Mona Lisa. Plenty of humour here for both the child and adult reader. Interesting to note that the children in the book all come from the class in which one of Pat's sons was in (Morgan). She wrote them because he'd decided it was about time he was in one of his mum's stories - what better reason for her to write the story! Jessica and her long, exaggerated stories is a gem of a creation.
• 
  Graham

  A book I adored as a kid - along with the same author's THE HOUSE THAT SAILED AWAY. These books were full of vitality, the kind of story that I wanted to pick up again once I'd finished reading it. THE MONA LISA MYSTERY helped shape my opinions of the crazy French and I will be ever grateful to the author for the joy the book brought me.
• 
  Erin O.

  This book is really important to me. I read it when I was a little kid and it took me until this year to find it again. It's where I first learned the word "hostage," and I was fascinated by the idea of a class taking a field trip to France (not realizing that they were British). It is out of print and difficult to find, but if you find it give it to a child you know!
• 
  Elizabeth Joyce

  Eureka! I have hunted for this book since 2nd grade! Thank goodness for Good Reads! I have to find this book and read it with my nephew. This book stood out for me during my elementary years!
• 
  Bethan

  :: Mr Coatsworth and the children listened open-mouthed, too astonished to interrupt.
  'Never mind" said the detective, she Mr Jones only blinked at him
  "We' ll pick him up and the hired hood who stole.." :
  
  Class 3 of Hampstead Primary school are going on a trip to Paris, unfortunately for them, their lovely headteacher, Miss Barker, cannot make the trip due to being in hospital. They have instead Miss Parker who unlike her kind friend is not very nice to the children and is putting a real downer on their trip and they haven't even started.
  
  What happens next is a series of events that the children navigate themselves out of and into a nightmarish situation they found themselves in when it all comes to a dramatic end... the truth will be revealed.
  
  Who doesn't love a good old mystery?
  
  Prickly bad guys, dodgy dealings, old fashioned attitudes and a puzzle to solve. This took me back to the times when reading for me meant opening a new world to step into, whenever this real world was too tough.
• 
  Skip

  A British elementary school takes a trip to Paris, and their French teacher is too ill to join them so a substitute joins them. The school bus is followed by a black Citroen and they notice some strange characters on the boat crossing the English channel. When they finally get to the Louvre, the Mona Lisa has been stolen and the students begin to tie together some of the shady characters that they have seen. While I like capers of both varieties (in this case a well-planned theft), I did not really connect with any of the characters, especially the vile Miss Barker.
• 
  vias_bookland

  This book has a handful of challenging words and is full of mystery from beginning to end.
  I would recommend this book to children over the age of eight.
  I rated it as three out of five as it wasn't necessarily challenging for me and towards the end, I became bored.
• 
  Cheryl

  FotL Chanute.
  
  I can guess why it's a childhood favorite for some. I, personally, should not have bothered persisting, as I don't think chaos = humor and I could tell right away that it was going to be one of those books....
• 
  Lydia Loh

  So easy to read and funny
• 
  Cellyn

  Totally love it!
• 
  Candice Lamb

  I used to get this book out the local library as a child constantly. I’m know sharing it with my 7yr old who is loving the mystery around Paris x
• 
  Kumar

  Good excuse to introduce kids to Paris, Mona Lisa and it's historic theft
• 
  Julie

  I can't believe I finally found the title of this book! I remember reading this in elementary school, but for years I couldn't remember the title. I could have sworn it was something like "The Fourth Grade Caper" or something like that (turns out they were in third grade). I remember so much of the plot of the book, despite reading it 20 years ago.
  
  Edit: I just re-read this, June 5 2008. It was still a lot of fun, and I really did remember sooo much of the plot and events. Back then though, it never occurred to me to ask whether the author is English. They're supposed to be English schoolkids on this trip, but I can't tell if the language reflected that or not. She used "car park" and "looked round" and "crikey" but there were other things the kids said that had me wondering.
  
  Anyway... still enjoyable after 20 years!
• 
  Jen

  This book (along with Hutchins' 'The House That Sailed Away') have been on my mind for years. I read them in the early 80's when I was in Primary School and fell in love with the mystery, the adventures, the travel, and in this case, Paris. So happy to have found this on Goodreads - all I'd had to date was a vague memory of a school trip to France, some kind of painting theft, and a French teacher (or perhaps that last element was left over from the Johnny English film...). The illustrations were a major part in loving this book.
• 
  Helen

  There’s something so cosy about old-fashioned books and being attracted to the vintage cover, I snapped this up in a charity shop on holiday. Aimed at children, it’s a fairly simple, mystery set in Paris. There are illustrations included which were quite stand-out for me. I enjoyed this read very much overall.
  
• 
  Emily

  My first novel.
• 
  Hepzibah

  I absolutely loved this as a child. A brilliant, funny, joyful book.
• 
  Amrutha Murali

  very interesting book!!!:)