Megan and Marcus can’t wait for the summer holidays to begin at Bexhill-on-Sea, where their own incredible beach hut, Parry, doubles as a high-powered rocket ship. Before long, they are heading for Australia on a thrilling mission.

As secret agents, they must confront a dangerous gang to try and save a beautiful beach from certain environmental ruin. When they spot a massive crocodile mysteriously devouring all the famous white soft sand on Whitehaven Beach, things start to go seriously wrong.

Marcus sees Megan being swallowed by the reptile and does not hesitate to plan a daring rescue operation. Skilfully, he helps her to escape, but as they are planning how to recover the stolen sand, the thieves return and the two young agents find themselves in great danger. Will Whitehaven Beach be lost forever?

Secret agents everywhere are invited to step inside the amazing Bexhill-On-Sea beach hut of The Paradise Beach Mysteries and join Marcus and Megan Morgan, as they travel at the speed of light to far-away top-rated world beaches, in a quest to save them from environmental ruin.

Sibling’s Megan and Marcus are secret agents working for, ‘The Environmental Protection of World Beaches’, or EP. Their job is to save beaches around the world from devastation, and destruction.

They travel the world in Parry, their grandparents beach hut. It is invisible to everyone but themselves, and can take them to any destination they need to go to, within a few minutes, (It flies).

This time the children are off to Australia, to Whitehaven Beach, where the most precious sand in the world is being stolen. Their investigations take a strange turn when the culprit emerges from the water and starts eating the sand. Their thief it would seem is an enormous crocodile. But what would a crocodile want with sand?

Whitehaven Beach is an exciting children’s adventure book, and the first in a series. Ms. Maisano has created young siblings, aged just 8 and 9 years old, as the main characters, and as spy’s too, going on dangerous missions. This is what makes this book appealing to children. A book about children, for children.

Weaved within the story are plenty of facts about the beach, which really does exist. There is also a factual information page at the back of the book, so that the reader can learn more about Whitehaven.

The writing flows naturally, with simple words and sentences used. The children are very likeable and authentic, though a little old headed, but perhaps that’s what happens when you are a secret agent!!

Whitehaven Beach is filled to the brim with drama from beginning to end, which will keep children hooked to the pages. I do have one little negative comment though, it really needed some illustrations. Illustrations are what brings a story to life for a child, they help to give the child some visual direction, and the tools to let their imagination creatively flow.

Cathy Maisano is a cultural researcher who spends her time learning about different places and people. As a child growing up in Australia, her back gate opened directly on to a beach lined with different coloured beach huts and she spent many happy hours playing among them and choosing her favourite one.

Nowadays, having travelled to many beaches around the world on research projects, Cathy has an expert knowledge of their differences and the environmental problems facing so many of them.

Currently, Cathy lives almost quite literally right on a beach in Sydney, Australia with her husband and children.

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