Megan the Detective

Frances Thomas

Megan the Detective has all the ingredients to make your mouth water: humour, a fast-paced plot, a heroine with a mind of her own - and recipes to die for! Megan wants to be a vet when she grows up, but in the meantime has to be satisfied with a part-time career as a private investigator. Life is certainly not dull in Megan's neighbourhood: she can hardly keep pace with all the demands for her services as a detective. No sooner is one case solved than the next one is knocking on the door!

What's the secret of Megan's success? She's a 'people watcher' and understands that direct action is not always the best way to go about getting a result. Which is why, when it comes to persuading Dad to adopt a stray cat, she decides to bake a batch of peanut butter cookies. This is just one of a series of delicious recipes scattered through the text:

Reading a million words in Wales?

Here's how Megan the Detective is helping Newport students to read a million words even before making her official appearance in print!

Pupils at St Julian's Comprehensive School, Hartridge High School and Duffryn High School in Newport will have a sneak preview of Megan's exploits - and maybe even get to try out Megan's recipes - as they take part in a special project before the official publication date next February.

They will have the chance to give feedback by email to the author, Frances Thomas, three times winner of the Tir na n-Og award. She's really looking forward to what promises to be a lively correspondence - it certainly will be if Megan has anything to do with it!

The Megan project is being jointly run by Pont Books and Philippa Watkins, Read a Million Words in Wales coordinator for Newport Schools. The 'Read a Million Words' initiative is funded by the Basic Skills Agency and the Welsh Assembly, and is part of the 'Words Talk, Numbers Count' strategy.

Finding Minerva by Frances Thomas was published by Pont Books earlier this year.