Bones and the Cupcake Mystery by David Adler, illustrated by Barbara Johansen Newman
Age: Beginning Reader (1st-2nd grade)
Viking, 2005
ISBN: 9780142411476 / 32 pages
Find this book at your local library
Jeffrey Bones is not your typical kid. He’s a detective who solves mysteries. When his friend’s spinach noodle cupcake goes missing during lunch, Jeffrey is on a mission to solve the case.
This book is a fun and quick mystery read for beginning readers. It is broken into 5 chapters, each chapter is about 5-8 pages. Each page has illustrations that help clarify the text. The text itself is written as short and quick sentences and is repetitive. The font is also smaller, allowing more words to be fit onto a page.
We read in class,
and Mr. Gale taught us math.
Math is about numbers.
Then he gave us homework.
I wish the writing had a more fluid flow. It’s very choppy. The illustrations are beautifully done by Barbara Johansen Newman. Each picture is in a bright and lively shades of purples, pinks, blues and greens. I love the portrayal of Not-Me-Amy and her frizzy hair. I love the idea of a spinach noodle cupcake. There is even a section at the end on how to make spinach noodle cupcakes.
For the kids that like Bones, there are a number of books in the series. Adler has also penned the Young Cam Jansen series, a supplementory read that will lead kids to the Cam Jansen series when they go up a couple of grades.
