Titles: Shadow of Doubt; Body of Evidence
Author: Jeremy Brown/Scholastic
Rating: * (1 star out of 3 possible, "C")
Recommended with Reservations
Audience: 5th grade and up
CSI, meet 5th graders! Ahh, thank you school library, for opening up the world of forensic science for my 10 year old. Oh, what am I worried about? When I was her age I was watching Rockford Files and Quincy, M.E.
Seriously, some of these posts will be driven by the selections my 10 year old brings home from public school. She's finally at the age where I can't pre-select everything she comes across, but I can at least read it with her and talk about it.
Naturally I wondered what the content of these books would be like. The cover shows a manga-cartoon version of a morgue, complete with wounded body under sheets. How graphic would this get?
As it turns out, not too graphic. Yes, they are dealing with crime and death and frequently murder. But the mysteries are finished in 3 or 4 pages; not a lot of space for gorey details. Mainly they focus on obscure science to solve mysteries: did you know tonic water contains quinine which will glow brightly under ultraviolet light?
The good news with these mysteries is that criminals are brought to justice. They are also smartly written with well-developed characters and good vocabulary, as well as the before-mentioned science facts. Not extremely applicable science, but extremely entertaining for kids who have finished all the Encyclopedia Brown books.
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