00000840

Someone robs a bank, and a private detective asks Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose to help him find the kid who caught the robber on video. ( )

The Bald Bandit is a chapter book in the A to Z mysteries series. All of the book have a mystery that has to be solved by some kids. This book involved a bank robbery which a fake detective committed. The kids have to find the video of the bank robbery and give it to the detective, but last minute they realize he is a fake and they quickly call the cops. The message in this book is to always look into what you are doing and check to make sure people are not lying. I thought this was an okay book. One reason I liked this book is the plot had a clear problem and solution, but at the end there was a twist. I thought the solution to finding the video was they would find the video and turn it in to the detective, but instead last minute they watched the video and saw that the detective was the man who robbed the bank. The little twist in the plot keeps readers engaged and on the edge of their seat while reading. Another reason I liked the book is the characters are believable and well developed. The characters are supposed to be around elementary school age and the author does a good job describing them as just that. For example, Josh asks his friends "How can we do that without our parents finding out?" The author makes them seem/act just like the reader who is reading this book would act. Finally, the language is very clear and simple for readers, yet is descriptive. The sentence structure is also very simple and organized. An example of the clear language and writing is the following: "Dink noticed red fuzz covering his head, like a new red lawn." The sentence is simple, but the author still uses descriptive language. ( )

the best ( )

Two ratings for early chapter books, I think. Around a three for me; and these, I think, are a definite four for what they are and who their audience is. I really did some smiling through these and I was pretty impressed with several things (read the first three and will copy this to the others). They seemed to me like they would be really challenging and I liked the addition of the map of the neighborhood in the front. ( )