Reviewed by Ruarc Hopley for Readers' Favorite

In M.L. Woodward’s children’s mystery novel, Tianna and Michelangelo’s Mask of a Faun, thirteen-year-old Tianna Howard and her grandfather, Professor Charles Howard, are thrust into a major international search. Everything starts with an unaddressed envelope dropped off in Oxford containing only four words. This clue pushes the family to change their holiday plans and head to Florence. They find out that a Nazi officer named Hans Bauer confiscated a famous 15th-century marble faun head during the war. He secretly tucked an ancient vellum sheet inside its pedestal with a coded riddle. Tianna and her grandfather must crack this code. This quest takes them on a high-stakes hunt through historic archives and secret vaults across both Italy and England. With field operatives and Interpol shadowing them, things get dangerous. Will Tianna outsmart her enemies and claim the masterwork?

M.L. Woodward’s Tianna and Michelangelo’s Mask of a Faun is a fantastic global treasure hunt that will keep you glued from start to finish. The travel itinerary never slows down, guiding readers through different countries and jumping cleanly between grand Italian art galleries and hidden historical sites. Having Tianna, a clever teenage girl, lead the charge with her sharp instincts gives the story an upbeat energy. Her grandfather is a great companion who supplies her with background facts without making the storyline seem predictable. The opposing factions bring a real sense of danger, transforming the search into a high-stakes competitive chase. Woodward writes with an evocative, multi-sensory vibrancy that makes the locations easy to picture. The brilliant integration of real-world history transforms standard puzzle-solving into a suspenseful race where the past directly influences the present. If you’re searching for an adventurous children’s mystery to pass the time, this book is guaranteed to deliver.