The Mona Lisa Mystery

Morgan and Class 3

by Pat Hutchins, Laurence Hutchins

Class 3 of Hampstead Primary School takes a school trip to Paris and lands right into the middle of a mystery.

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, France, Middle Grade, Fiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Pat Hutchins is an English illustrator and writer of children's books.

She won the 1974 Kate Greenaway Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book illustration by a British subject. The work was The Wind Blew, a picture book in rhyme which she also wrote. It shows how "a crowd of people anxiously chase their belongings" in the wind.

Reviews

[Pernille Wardenær · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little reed while in Paris

[Rachel Gamble · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Aaryan Dhawan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the book as it was full of adventures and mysteries.
My favorite character was Ms. Parker. I loved the part in the book when Ms. Parker was being interrogated and what happened next.
The book was so exciting that I was always curious to know what would happen next. I felt as I was travelling to Paris and got to know about Mona Lisa, the famous painting.
I recommend this book to people specially kids who like to read about adventures, mysteries, comedy but not about scary and horror.

Aaryan Dhawan

[Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

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. · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

:: 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.

[Ezzara · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mona Lisa Mystery was all about how the Mona Lisa was stolen and how the Third-grade kids became detectives and solved the mystery. I liked Ms. Parker as how she was acting, she was dying her hair so that nobody gets to know. I loved the way she thought to steal the Mona Lisa. The story felt like a real story. The story was very mysterious, it made me keep on guessing what will happen next. My favorite part in the book was when Ms. Parker got arrested and she and the doctor went to jail. Some of the scenes were very mysterious and suspenseful. Overall the book was good. I would recommend the book Harry Potter as the book was very suspenseful and mysterious to the book Mona Lisa Mystery good takes inspiration from the book Harry Potter. I would rate this book 3/10 as the book was not that mysterious as the title said, so I would give the book 3/10.

[Skip · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Nirvi Bansal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was interesting with all sorts of adventures and mystery's.My favourite character was

Morgan. the book was when Ms.Paker told her secret to the kids and when the kids meet Ms.Baker.

The book was and is so interesting that i had no least favourite part. I got to know a lot about the

Mona Lisa and Paris. I recommend this book to people who like adventures, mystery's and humour.

[vias_bookland · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 · Rating 2 out of 5]

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....

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my childhood favourite. I think about this book all the time. I think I borrowed it about 10 times a year every year in primary school until I left. I have very fond memories of the story and characters!!

[Lydia Loh · Rating 5 out of 5]

So easy to read and funny

[Lauren Link · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an amazing and very funny read for younger children who love a good mystery but do not like anything to scary

[Wylan Van Eck · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Cellyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Totally love it!

[Candice Lamb · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 · Rating 3 out of 5]

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

[Charlotte Hicks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great children book read. A school trip caught in a robbery!

[Jen Strachan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Family audiobook on a road trip to Edinburgh. A fun story.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first novel.

[Hepzibah · Rating 5 out of 5]

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

[Amrutha Murali · Rating 3 out of 5]

very interesting book!!!:)