Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons (2019)

This is a cute and entertaining family story, with an engaging plot…

This was an extremely well done children’s/young adult mystery by jazz performer and music educator Ashli St. Armant (who sings under the stage name of Jazzy Ash). It had a fun storyline and an excellent audio production with incidental music, presumably by Jazzy Ash herself and her band the Leaping Lizards.

“Real life elements and historical jazz figures of New Orleans were mentioned throughout the plot as well so that helps to make it an educational feature for young music students”

The Book Guide® Editor

The story has 14-year-old Viva Durant spending a summer vacation with her grandmother in New Orleans. While there, she begins to investigate a mystery built around the traditional children’s clapping song Mary Mack (the subject of the song is turned into a fictitious jazz singer for this plot).

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Real-life elements and historical jazz figures of New Orleans were mentioned throughout the plot as well so that helps to make it an educational feature for young music students. The wrap-up to the story left it open for a possible sequel and hopefully, Ashli St. Armant will continue with this side-line to her music career.

The narration by Bahni Turpin was excellent in all voices, although I assume the occasional singing parts were done by Ashli St. Armant.

We loved this audiobook! The narrator did such an amazing job at creating a fun tale with the variation of voices, the music, it was like listening to a movie! The tale itself was so entertaining, the fact that it tied in with a classic lullaby we all know and love, Miss Mary Mack, I found myself listening to the tune and wondering myself where The clues in the song would send Viva to next. It’s an amazing and wildly entertaining tale for both children and adults!