Review Detail

Undercover! (Emma is on the Air #4)

Middle Grade Fiction 178

Investigative reporting ala Nellie Bly

June 15, 2016 (Updated: June 20, 2026)

Overall rating

3.0

Plot

3.0

Characters

N/A

Writing Style

N/A

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

3.0

Emma is back, and this time she finds a copy of Bridge to Terebithia in her school library that has a note with clues in it. The book is not from the school library, but from a nearby branch of the local library, and was last checked out in 2000! With the help of her friend Melissa, who volunteers at the library, Emma manages to get into the tower that the note mentions, and manages to find the answer to the mystery.

Good Points

While Melissa and Emma aren't always on the best terms, they learn to get along, and Emma's other friends, Javier and Aidan, also help her out in a constructive fashion, even though they can be a little annoying, with their insistence on doing karate kicks. I loved that the school class was working on a project in the library!

Emma is very interested in being a news reporter like her Papi, and when a woman from the local historical society does a presentation for her class on Nellie Bly, Emma is even more motivated to embrace investigative journalism. While this isn't the best career choice in real life for most young people, the author, herself a television journalist, can be applauded for trying to give children a window into career possibilities.

Elementary aged readers who have followed the exploits of Friedman's Mallory, McDonald's Judy Moody, Cleary's Ramon Quimby or Danziger's Amber Brown will be glad to have a new friend in the spunky and dedicated Emma Perez.