The Adventures with Barbie series was originally published in the early 90's and has since been reissued in a variety of countries with various reading orders - sometimes under the same names but not always. In Australia, this series was reissued as Barbie Sweethearts and featured covers with Barbie dolls. The series follows Barbie on her every day adventures featuring recurring characters, different careers, new places and friends and some mysteries. Barbie always has a smile and is always willing to lend a hand, making this a perfect series for tween readers.

In The Mysterious Dude of Ghost Ranch Barbie goes to her friend's ranch and discovers mysterious ghostly things happening and they investigate to find the answer. It's fairly obvious - there's nothing overly complex or unexpected. It did seem to be a little bit stilted towards the end. It was kind of like the mystery didn't seem to provide enough content so the author threw in more drama regarding the trees and foresting. And it wasn't really explained well as to why any of it happened. Then again we're talking about a kids book in 64 pages so you know.

It's not my favourite Barbie book. My rating 1.5 stars. Target audience, 3 stars. ( )