1. No Stone Unturned was a really good mystery story that told you a lot about Victorian life.   I wanted to keep reading to find out the solution to the story but for me there wasn't quite enough action.  I think the pairing of Kelly and Ben was really good as it meant that each of the characters supported each other through the mystery and it was nice to see Kelly get a friend after being so lonely at the start of the story.  However, her dependence on her only friend meant that she ignored really odd things about Ben though that was also good for the mystery as it meant all of her attention was focussed on that instead.  I would recommend this book to people that like mysteries but not to people that prefer books with lots of action.

By Aush

2. There are so many questions and secrets in this book that I wanted to keep reading in order to find out what the solutions would be.  It was really interesting to find out about Kelly's story and see how she and her friend Ben uncover the mystery that starts with a history project at school.  There was lots of detail about what life was like in the Victorian period which was really interesting to read, especially as we learned a bit about the Victorians in school last year so I had a bit of background knowledge that helped me.  I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a really good mystery.

By Luke

3. I didn't really enjoy the book, it just was not a book I liked. I would recommend it to friends I know who would like it. I couldn't get into it, there was no particular point in the book.. I think the history was alright, I just didn't like how she wrote it.

By Katie

4. This book was really good and it is a prime example of how rich history is in small towns. I loved all of the research that has gone into the book, it makes the story come alive! This definitely made me want to research more about my home town and I learnt so much! The only negative is how you never find out how did her history project finish, because it would have been really good to see her homework recognised as brilliant.

By Megan

5. No stone unturned is a spooky yet mystical story of Kelly (a young traveller) and Ben (Kelly's best friend). Ben and Kelly meet on a summer's afternoon by the railway. and began to start to meet up more often but found they didn't have much to talk about until Kelly gets an exciting history project from her teacher Mr Walker. Ben agrees to help Kelly with her history project as he knows a lot about the local history of Wilmcote and this is where their adventure begins.

This book is a great historical mystery with fun characters who you really want to know more about. Kelly is inquisitive and determined to overcome obstacles. While Ben is an oddball that struggles to cope with modern stuff as he is home schooled. Or so he says. I believe that No Stone Unturned starts quite slowly but picks up the pace as the dark secrets of the Wilmcote Quarry unroll.  The story travels back and forward in time showing the different eras of 1839 to 2012. The story is historically accurate and shows the perspective of both the rich architect Sir Charles Barry and the normal working man of the quarry. The story focuses on the lives of William, Billy and Alice Denton and how their lives turn around when the quarry is built. The story includes a tragic death of four innocent people which is bases of a real life accident in Wilmcote. Helen Watts provides a unique perspective on the story since she used to walk her dog by the quarry and she herself got interested in the history much like Kelly.

I love how this story reveals how history back then shapes our lives today. However I do not believe the blurb draws people in as much as the story deserves. For me what drew me in was wanting to understand the truth of the Wilmcote incident. It taught me a lot about the quarries and how the Houses of Parliament were built.

My favourite part was the end because of how tense and dramatic the scene was compared to the beginning which is a bit slower. But overall my favourite character was Ben because he wasn't a stereotypical boy like in some books. He was unique and strange but Kelly overlooks that fact and encourages you to like him.

To conclude I really liked the book and would recommend it to people who are definitely interested in history. To be honest it isn't normally the kind of book I would read without being told but I enjoyed it.  It did make me think that I would like to read another one of Helen Watts's books.

By Ella

6. "No Stone Unturned" is a fictional history book by Helen Watts about the lives of different people in two different time zones. The story in the present follows the life of a 13 year old girl called Kelly who, along with her friend Ben, is working on a school history project about a quarry in her local town of Wilmcote. There are two other storylines set in Victorian times. The first follows the life of Sir Charles Barry who is the architect on the Palace of Westminster. The second describes the life of a family in Wilmcote called the Denton's and their part in the shipping of Wilmcote stone to the Palace of Westminster.

I really enjoyed the book because I thought that it had an interesting storyline. I thought that the idea of having the story set in two different time zones was brilliant and I loved reading about one thing in the past and then reading about it again in the present. I felt like I could relate to Kelly because I am twelve and she is thirteen. I also thought that the events that happened to the Denton's towards the end of the book were really tragic and horrible. Furthermore, I thought that the ending of the book was strange because I felt that it belonged more in a spooky story. The book seemed to be historically accurate and the fact that the author included in the acknowledgments any bits of history that she had changed was helpful in understanding the history. Overall, I extremely enjoy "No Stone Unturned" and would recommend it to anyone wanting a good book with a good storyline and good characters.

By John

7. No Stone Unturned is a gripping mystery about a girl called Kelly Hearn who uncovers a historical story when her dog, Tyson, finds an old boot that is rumoured to have been worn by a stone miner who was killed by a train in September 1860. Along with her friend, Ben, and Tyson the dog, she goes on an exciting expedition to discover what really happened. The story flashes back to the mid-late 1800s where Sir Charles Barry has employed a team of stone miners to build a railway in Wilmcote. Ben is a boy who claims to have lived in the same house as the stone miner who was killed, but Ben is not who he seems...

I really liked this book because it tells three stories at once- Kelly's expedition, Sir Charles Barry planning the railway and William Denton, a stone miner, helping to build the railway. I also liked the plot with all the twists and turns, and the mystery of it all; it was a really good book, but like the winter horses, it had a slow pace. There is also a mysterious twist!

The history element tells the reader about life as a stone miner, who is trying to work to a deadline and get the wages he needs to get by, and also about Sir Charles Barry and the Wilmcote Mines. The 1800s really interests me and I would like to learn more about the period.

I would highly recommend this book to people who love a good mystery and also people who take an interest in the 1800s.