Customer Reviews

Who Is Stealing the Twelve Days of Christmas? (Chickadee Court Mysteries)

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

 

 

Who is Stealing the Twelve Days of Christmas is a good story for readers comfortable with chapter books. Alex and Yasmeen live on Chickadee Court. Each Christmas, the neighbors decorate their yards with a Twelve Days of Christmas display. This year, someone is stealing the displays and returning them a few days later. Alex's mother is a police investigator trying to solve a set of robberies of collectible mouse figures. Alex and Yasmeen piece together clues from their neighborhood crime and end up helping Alex's mom with the other robberies. The reader learns to be more objective. Look at the facts. Use logic. The reader also learns not to make a judgment based on a person's appearance. A person isn't 'bad' just because they are different.

I bought this book to read with my 10-year-old son, who has language-related learning disabilities. I'm a mystery addict, myself, and I was looking for a book that wouldn't be too advanced for him but also wouldn't be too childish for me, and "Who's Stealing ..." fit the bill perfectly. The mystery plot is just right (I wasn't sure whodunit, and I often can't help but know, even with adult mysteries), the narrator's voice sounded completely authentic, and the characters (both adult and child) were likable but not unrealistic. I also appreciated that the author has her characters make some unconventional choices (Mom is a cop, the boy narrator has chosen a best friend across race and gender lines, an older male character is a nurturing soup-maker) but then treats these things in a very matter of fact way -- none of them is the point of the story. My son liked the book, too, so I am off to collect the others in the series!

My 9 year old son said this book was very entertaining - he bought it in paperback. About a boy named Alex from PA who finds himself in the middle of crime spree... He read it over the Christmas Break last year and he even brought it to the supper table. I think that makes it a hit in my book!