The Sparkplug Mysteries (Frankie Potts #1)

Author(s): Juliet Jacka

NZ Junior Fiction

Book 1 in Juliet Jacka's addictive new Frankie Potts series for readers ages 7 - 10.


Meet Frankie Potts, the village of Tring's number one girl detective. She has flaming red hair, a questioning mind and an addiction to gobstoppers. And she is REALLY good at solving mysteries.


When Frankie is adopted by a dog at the window of her favourite sweetshop, there's detecting to be done. The dog, Sparkplug, is adorable. Even Frankie's formidable Grandma M goes all soft and goopy in his presence. Sparkplug can ride a skateboard like a pro, high-five, dance on his hind legs and sniff out a mystery two houses away. He's the ideal dog for a detective. Sparkplug wants to stay with Frankie and Frankie would dearly love to keep him - but where is he from?


There are other mysteries to solve, and they all seem to be linked: trails of ants; Grandma M's odd behaviour; her secret tattoo ...What? When and WHY did cardy-wearing Grandma get a tattoo? A circus has just arrived in the village - it seems a good place to start looking for clues. But first, Frankie will have to get Sparkplug past Tring Dog Control and her archenemy, Ralph Peter-McGee.

PUBLICATION JUNE 2016

18.00 NZD

Stock: 0


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Product Information

Juliet Jacka started writing junior fiction stories when she was on maternity leave with her first daughter (who was luckily a good sleeper). Juliet's first book Night of the Perigee Moon won the 2013 Tom Fitzgibbon Storylines Award and was published in 2014 by Scholastic. Her story The Keeper of Spirit Hill was shortlisted in Tom Fitzgibbon competitions in 2011 and 2013. Her delightful chapter-book series about Frankie Potts, red-haired girl detective was launched by Puffin in June 2016 with #1 Frankie Potts and the Sparkplug Mysteries and #2 Frankie Potts and the Bikini Burglar. Juliet is pleased to be carrying on a family tradition by becoming a published author: she's the third generation to do so.


She lives in one of Wellington's hilly suburbs in a red house by a railway line, with her husband and two young daughters. Juliet juggles writing with family life and her work, which involves doing inscrutable digital stuff with websites.

General Fields

  • : 9780143309185
  • : Penguin Group (NZ)
  • : Puffin
  • : 0.116
  • : January 2016
  • : 198mm X 129mm X 9mm
  • : New Zealand
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Juliet Jacka
  • : Paperback
  • : 1607
  • : Phoebe Morris
  • : en
  • : 112