Customer Reviews

A to Z Mysteries Complete 26-Book Set (The Absent Author, The Bald Bandit, The Canary Caper, The Deadly Dungeon, The Empty Envelope, The Falcon's Feathers, The Goose's Gold, The Haunted Hotel, The Invisible Island, The Jaguar's Jewel, The Kidnapped King, The Lucky Lottery, The Missing Mummy, The Ninth Nugget, The Orange Outlaw, The Panda Puzzle, The Quicksand Question, The Runaway Racehorse, The School Skeleton, The Talking T. Rex, The Unwilling Umpire, The Vampire's Vacation, The White Wolf, The X'ed-Out X-Ray, The Yellow Yacht, and The Zombie Zone)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

What a rewarding series of books! We have the entire series, and several of the other series by the same author, and we've found that the A to Z Mysteries thoroughly engage our first grade daughter.

The books are quite readable for young readers. Our first grader reads and understands what is taking place. There's not a lot of difficult language or concepts, and the author quite often takes the time to describe or define a term that might not be all that familar to a youngster. Our daughter as learned a bit of patience in this regard. She's eager to ask if there's a work she doesn't understand, but she now trusts the author to explain things in the very next sentence.

The mysteries are usually well crafted and interesting. They challenge readers to try to figure out "who did it" and often offer a twist or surprise in the end. The author never cheats - the clues are all there. And when kids figure out who did it before the end, the books remain engaging and fun as an explanation is offered as to why the deed was done.

A word of caution for parents - the children in these books are sometimes in precarious predicaments, but they always end up safe and sound. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a conversation starter, you'll find some within the pages of these books. Do the young detectives (there are three, two boys and a girl) always make the wisest choices while investigating an event? No, they do not. But there are consequences for those choices. The young detectives are never left in harms way for very long, but the author does make use of the "cliffhanger" at chapters' ends. These young detectives are quite self aware, and they are open and honest. They know that a worried mother might disapprove of their efforts to track down the teenager who videotaped a bank robbery, and they talk about it in the book. But the group always travels together, and they usually know when to get an adult involved on their behalf.

You will find the mysteries much easier to solve than those presented in Encyclopedia Brown books, although for older readers of mysteries, the Brown books are very good, too. Younger readers get frustrated with Brown as the solutions to myteries are often over their heads. Not so in the A to Z mysteries.

The author also takes time to develop characters. Several books into the series (if you start with A, which is really the best place to start) you will have gotten to know the personality of each young detective, and other characters recur from book to book.

The writing is as tight as appropriate for young readers, and there's plenty of description to absorb a young mind. The series has some special editions that are available for purchase separately. Those editions are longer, but well worth the read.

This is a fine series and if you can find the complete set, you'll often get a real price break per book. I highly recommend the books, as well as the author's other series (The Capital Mysteries, for example, with different young detectives, all of which take place in Washington D.C.).

I have a grandchild who just turned 8 yrs old. She pours over these books. I couldn't get them quick enough to satisfy her reading so I bought the set. My 8 yr old grandson who doesn't like to read also loves these stories. I highly recommend these books.

My son had been reading a few of these books in his class at school. I decided to surprise him and buy the entire series. He absolutely loves these books. His is constantly reading a different one everyday!

My youngest is disabled so finding books that appeal to him-have action and story, but maintain clarity in the story is hard to do--but in this series--it's done well. Thanks!

I bought the set for my 8 year old. He does not like to read so we read the books together. We try to guess who the bad guy is once we have read all the clues. Reading with him is making reading fun for him. He is showing great interest in reading now.

My kids really enjoyed the 26 book series. I bought this for my twin 8 year old girls and they really enjoyed being able to read a longer story that wasn't too challenging for them to read, but wasn't a simple book that they could finish in one sitting.

I do not like it. This book is rather dissapointing more than usual. It was a very scary sight for me.

These books are great and a big savings over single purchase. My 7 year old son LOVED them! He could read them but would rather have them read to him.

I bought the entire 26 book set of the A to Z Mysteries to read to my 6 year old grandson. So far he loves them. They hold his interest and when he comes over he wants me to read more to him. Generally my grandson is busy busy busy. It's nice to have an excuse to sit and read for awhile when he is at my house for the day.
The books arrived in excellent condition just as they were described.