Mysteries

Clara (from Val's class) and her mother brought a couple of Meg Macintosh mystery books for me to read to my class.  We just finished reading The Mystery at the Medieval Castle by Lucinda Landon.  

Instead of writing reviews of the book, the children tried to write a summary of the novel.  We discussed how if you go to the library catalogue you can find reviews and summaries of books.  The summaries let you know what the book is about to help you decide if you would be interested in reading the book.  In a summary, the writer wants to let you know what the story is about without giving away the ending.  This is especially important not to ruin the ending of a mystery.

Writing a summary without telling the ending was difficult, but several children did a good job of enticing someone to read the book.  Here are a few successful reviews:

"Meg Mackintosh went to a castle with a history club and while there the chalice was stolen!"

"Meg Mackintosh goes to a castle but the chalice went missing.  Find out how it ends later."

"The Mystery at the Medieval Castle 
It is a great story, very original, find out how Meg finds the chalice."

"Meg Mackintosh and the Mystery at the Medieval Castle.
In this book Meg goes to a medieval castle and a Duchess's chalice is missing!  Read it and find out who stole the chalice."

Currently, we are reading another of Landon's novels:  The Mystery at Camp Creepy. There are 8 books in the  Meg Mackintosh series.  Many of the children are eager to read more, so you might want to find some at your local library or book store to read at home.