By Chris Grabenstein
Amazon rating: 4.6/5.0, grades 3-7
Good Reads: 4.16/5
Common Sense Media: Not Reviewed
4Rbooks: 5/6, Grades 5-8
322 pages
Synopsis:
Chris Grabenstein, author of the Mr. Lemoncello series, Welcome to Wonderland series, Haunted Mystery series, and co-author of numerous books with James Patterson (including Word of Mouse), has collected twenty short stories from 20 “Mystery Writers of America.” The book is organized like the Encyclopedia Brown books of years past with the solution for each story presented in the back of the book.
Mysteries include a mom who may or may not be a spy, a haunted house, a missing school cashbox, a stolen Stanley Cup (trophy given to the hockey champion each year), a haunted typewriter, and missing magical cups on magic day at school. The investigators and problem solvers in each case are children between the ages of 10-14.
Parental Guidance: low
A couple of moments of middle school boy humor.
A few instances of danger.
Recommendation:
I think of this book as Encyclopedia Brown on steroids. So, as someone who grew up reading and enjoying Encyclopedia Brown books, I thought this was a great read. The stories are longer and the solutions more detailed (almost like a complete final chapter), but the premise is the same. Read along and see if you can figure out what happened or “who done it.”
As with any book of short stories, some are excellent, some are great, and some just average. I thought the majority of the mysteries in this book were in the great to excellent category. It held my interest throughout, and kept me wanting more. I hope there will be a Puzzlestastic #2 someday down the road.
This would be an excellent book for children who love mysteries or who have difficulty following a longer plot. It could be a great family or classroom read-aloud with everyone trying to solve the mystery.
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