Young Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery (Penguin Young Readers, L3) [Mass Market Paperback]

David A. Adler (Author), Susanna Natti (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up | Series: Penguin Young Readers, L3

Level Three

Cam is playing baseball with her friends. When a baseball goes missing, Cam has to use her amazing memory to help her friends find it.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 1-2Blink your eyes and say, Click. Thats all it takes for Cam Jansen to recall a scene with amazing accuracy. Her visual memory comes to bear yet again in this story of a baseball lost in a crowded park. Her sleuthing skills, as well as her good sense, keep her friends from making false accusations. Instead, they work together to solve the mystery. Nattis illustrations underscore Cams visual memories and provide perceptive readers with helpful clues. The books format and text are right on target for beginning readers.Pat Leach, Lincoln City Libraries, NE
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Right on target for beginning readers. -- School Library Journal

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Young Readers (January 5, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439227038
• ISBN-13: 978-0439227032
• ASIN: 0141311061
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #170,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators, A-Z > ( A ) > Adler, David A.

More About the Author

I write both fiction and non-fiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like? Andy Russell is based, loosely, on a beloved member of my family. He's fun to write about and the boy who inspired the character is even more fun to know. Cam Jansen is based even more loosely on a classmate of mine in the first grade whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Now, especially when my children remind me of some promise they said I made, I really envy Cam's amazing memory. I have really enjoyed writing about Cam Jansen and her many adventures. For my books of non-fiction I write about subjects I find fascinating. My first biography was Our Golda: The Life of Golda Meir. To research that book, I bought a 1905 set of encyclopedia. Those books told me what each of the places Golda Meir lived in were like when she lived there. I've written many other biographies, including books about Martin Luther King, Jr; George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Helen Keller; Harriet Tubman; Anne Frank; and many others in my Picture Book Biography series. I've been a Yankee and a Lou Gehrig fan for decades so I wrote Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man. It's more the story of his great courage than his baseball playing. Children face all sorts of challenges and it's my hope that some will be inspired by the courage of Lou Gehrig. I am working now on another book about a courageous man, Janusz Korczak. My book One Yellow Daffodil is fiction, too, but it's based on scores of interviews I did with Holocaust survivors for my books We Remember the Holocaust, Child of the Warsaw Ghetto, The Number on My Grandfather's Arm, and Hiding from the Nazis. The stories I heard were compelling. One Yellow Daffodil is both a look to the past and to the future, and expresses my belief in the great spirit and strength of our children. I love math and was a math teacher for many years, so it was fun for me to write several math books including Fraction Fun, Calculator Riddles, and Shape Up! Fun with Triangles and Other Polygons. In my office I have this sign, "Don't Think. Just Write!" and that's how I work. I try not to worry about each word, even each sentence or paragraph. For me stories evolve. Writing is a process. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript, many times. And I work with my editors. I look forward to their suggestions, their help in the almost endless rewrite process. Well, it's time to get back to dreaming, and to writing, my dream of a job. David A. Adler is the author of more than 175 children's books, including the Young Cam Jansen series. He lives in Woodmere, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery, March 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Young Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery (Penguin Young Readers, L3) (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is great for those who are just becoming independant readers. The sentences are short and the vocabulary is simple enough so it is easy for them to understand. Also the pictures correspond well to the story. The story will keep their interest, they will follow the pursuit to find the baseball, seeing how Cam uses her photographic memory to help solve the mystery. This story teaches young children how photgraphic memories work in a simple way. I liked how they used Cam, short for camera as her nickname.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Young Cam Jansen helps her friends track down a missing baseball, March 18, 2006

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Young Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery (Penguin Young Readers, L3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Cam Jensen's real name is Jennifer and she has an amazing memory. Her memory is like a camera: she has a picture of her head of every thing that she has seen. Whenever she wants to remember something she closes her eyes and says, "Click." Because of her great memory people started calling her "the Camera," and then they shorted it to just "Cam." "Young Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery" takes place one afternoon when Cam and her friends are playing a game of baseball at the park. When Amy hits the ball so far that it sails over Robert's head, she ends up hitting a home run. But the ball disappears and Cam and her friends have to find it because otherwise the game will be over. Can Cam catch all the clues?

Written by David A. Adler with illustrations by Susanna Natti, "Young Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery" does a nice job of finding a comfort level for its young readers when it comes to solving the mystery. Kids reading this book might not be as quick as Cam to figure out the clues, but they should be ahead of Cam's friends in that regard. There is also an opportunity for readers to test their own memory and see if it as amazing as Cam Jansen: Right before the opening chapter there is a full-page illustration of Cam and Robert walking through the park. Young readers are supposed to look at the picture, blink their eyes and say "Click," and then turn to the last page of the book to answer some questions and see how well they remember the details of the picture.

There are other books in the Young Cam Jansen series, including "Young Cam Jansen and the Dinosaur Game," "Young Cam Nansen and the Missing Cookie," and "Young Cam Jansen and the Library Mystery." These are all Level 2 readers aimed at ages 5-8 (Grades K-2), and students who are beginning to read. The reason these are all Young Cam Jansen mysteries is because Adler has written even more books about his young heroine in the Cam Jansen adventure series, which are aimed at ages 8-12 (Grades 1-3) and kids who are reading alone. Helping young readers make the transition to chapter books, this series includes "Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball," "Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monkey House," and "Cam Jansen and the First Day of School Mystery." I certainly like the idea of Adler different types of books for readers at two different levels and think it would be interesting for Adler to write a Level 1 Cam Jansen story and another for her at some reading level higher than 3.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just Right, November 27, 2009

By 

L. Mizen (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Young Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery (Penguin Young Readers, L3) (Mass Market Paperback)

I ordered this book for my seven year old son and it was spot on reading for his age. Not too easy and not too hard. Just Right!