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I could not put this book down!

When I read the first three chapters of Missing to a Year 5 class, they were hooked from the first line...‘In the dead of the night we ran away.’

Mackenzie da Luca’s mother is missing. Maggie da Luca is a scientist who specialises in bats. When visiting the small town of Boquete in Central America she vanishes without a trace in the jungles of Panama. After her mother has been missing for 114 days, Mackenzie’s dad is still desperate for answers and sneaks off at night with Mackenzie in tow to Panama to find the truth. Mackenzie however has her own theory about her mother's disappearance and is not sure if she wants her dad to find her mum.

The story alternates between 'Then' in Sydney as 12 year old Mackenzie and her family attempt to adjust to life without her mother and 'Now' in Panama where Mackenzie is reluctantly searching for clues with her dad. By weaving together the family's life before and after Maggie's disappearance, Sue Whiting gradually reveals the pieces of this mystery puzzle.

Mackenzie is a resilient girl, but it's not easy beginning secondary school without your old primary school friends and the support of your mother. She finds comfort in her sketching and is befriended by the rebellious Billie who takes her under her wing.

When she arrives in Panama, Mackenzie finds it confronting to be wandering the streets of Boquete where her mother was last seen and finds herself wondering...

'Did she walk along here? Did the people in the shops and on the street see her? Speak to her on her last day here? Am I walking right past someone who might have seen her get on the bus back to David, leaving Boquete? Or someone who actually knows what happened to her?' 

A chance meeting with a wildlife worker sets Mackenzie off doing her own risky detective work and asking herself...Is it is better to know or not know the truth about her missing mother?

If you're in Year 5 and 6 and like a mystery with twists and turns and a roller coaster ride of emotions then Missing is the book for you.

Happy reading!

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