By Colorado Kids Advisory Board member Kathryn Prose

Title: Mystery #3: Deadly Waters
Illustrator Bea Jackson and Ivy Pages
Authors: Gloria Skurzynski and Alane Ferguson
Publisher: National Geographic
Number of pages: 143

Deadly Waters, a "mystery" story put out by National Geographic, has to be one of the lamest books I have ever read. It had weak characters and a weak plot.

Ashley and Jack Landon's family harbors foster kids. The latest one is 14-year-old Bridger Conley. Bridger is a country hick from Wyoming, and is primarily interested in cowboys and degrading girls. Jack is a budding photographer, and is the only character in the book whose personality is defined throughout the book. Ashley Landon is a confusing character. She
goes from being a weak-stomached chicken to a tough girl, back to being a chicken, and then she reverses once again to become a tough girl. Bridger's personality is fickle as well. He starts out from being a girl and animal hater to later becoming a guy who protects animals and respects girls. The book starts out with the three kids standing beside a canal in the Everglades- the famed National Park where everyone has to save the animals, particularly the manatee. Speaking of manatees, the book is centered on them: the manatees are sick and they're dying without cause. Later, the three kids get in a boat and head down stream to a good fishing place, where a man in a speedboat steals Jack's new and expensive camera. While the man makes his getaway, he runs over a manatee. Attempting to save the manatee, Bridger and Jack jump in the shallow water and try to help the manatee and her baby. But then, a seven-foot shark shows up, who, in the kids' opinion, is after the manatee. Bridger attempts to scare the shark off, but the shark just circles and circles. The shark is finally scared off by an approaching boat.

The kids soon realize that that was one of the stupidest moves of their life. The manatee could have saved itself without the kids' help, and the shark was after Jack, Bridger, and Ashley, not the manatee. The Landon family and Bridger go to a restaurant, and, after a while, Bridger and Jack go out to the dock. They find the boat that belongs to the man who stole
Jack's camera, and Jack gets the camera back. After they begin running back to the restaurant, they meet the man who stole the camera. He pulls a gun on them, but they're rescued by Ashley. The three kids go to a police station, and, that night, Jack looks at his pictures he had from the camera. But there's a funny one in there. . .a picture that could hold the key to why the manatees are sick.

I downright didn't like the book because it was focused too much on manatees, and as a result, the mystery was, "Why are the manatees dying?" A whole book about manatees? And a fictional book at that? I'd much rather read reference book about manatees and the environmental problems they face in real life, not psycho maniacs purposely destroying them for their own legal benefit.

I'd recommend this book to a seven to ten-year-old girl who really enjoys manatees and other animals. I'd not recommend this book to a person who likes things that have to do with humans, such as a Nancy Drew, a Hardy Boys, Sherlock Holmes, or even a Harry Potter. (October, 2001)