I can't believe I finally found the title of this book! I remember reading this in elementary school, but for years I couldn't remember the title. I could have sworn it was something like "The Fourth Grade Caper" or something like that (turns out they were in third grade). I remember so much of the plot of the book, despite reading it 20 years ago.

Edit: I just re-read this, June 5 2008. It was still a lot of fun, and I really did remember sooo much of the plot and events. Back then though, it never occurred to me to ask whether the author is English. They're supposed to be English schoolkids on this trip, but I can't tell if the language reflected that or not. She used "car park" and "looked round" and "crikey" but there were other things the kids said that had me wondering.

Anyway... still enjoyable after 20 years!

With a more complex plot than [b:Follow That Bus|4243509|Follow That Bus|Pat Hutchins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344949903s/4243509.jpg|630907], Hutchins' story of Class 3's trip to Paris and their sleuthing with regards to finding the missing, Mona Lisa. Plenty of humour here for both the child and adult reader. Interesting to note that the children in the book all come from the class in which one of Pat's sons was in (Morgan). She wrote them because he'd decided it was about time he was in one of his mum's stories - what better reason for her to write the story! Jessica and her long, exaggerated stories is a gem of a creation.

4.5

There’s something so cosy about old-fashioned books and being attracted to the vintage cover, I snapped this up in a charity shop on holiday. Aimed at children, it’s a fairly simple, mystery set in Paris. There are illustrations included which were quite stand-out for me. I enjoyed this read very much overall.

This book (along with Hutchins' 'The House That Sailed Away') have been on my mind for years. I read them in the early 80's when I was in Primary School and fell in love with the mystery, the adventures, the travel, and in this case, Paris. So happy to have found this on Goodreads - all I'd had to date was a vague memory of a school trip to France, some kind of painting theft, and a French teacher (or perhaps that last element was left over from the Johnny English film...). The illustrations were a major part in loving this book.

With a more complex plot than [b:Follow That Bus|4243509|Follow That Bus|Pat Hutchins|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1344949903s/4243509.jpg|630907], Hutchins' story of Class 3's trip to Paris and their sleuthing with regards to finding the missing, Mona Lisa. Plenty of humour here for both the child and adult reader. Interesting to note that the children in the book all come from the class in which one of Pat's sons was in (Morgan). She wrote them because he'd decided it was about time he was in one of his mum's stories - what better reason for her to write the story! Jessica and her long, exaggerated stories is a gem of a creation.