Cam Jansen: The Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones by David A. Adler

Reviewed by Margo Dill, www.margodill.com, margodll@aol.com

Chapter book, contemporary mystery
Elementary school girl who is quite a mystery sleuth!
Rating: One of my favorite Cam Jansen mysteries!

Short, short summary: If you aren’t familiar with Cam Jansen, then go to the library and get familiar! She is a super sleuth and solves all sorts of mysteries with her photographic memory–(thus her nickname Cam, short for camera.) Kids love her, and they love to solve the mystery along with her. In this book, Cam and Eric go to a museum on a field trip. While at the museum, they notice there are some missing dinosaur bones, and they follow clues to find the thieves.

So, what do I do with this book?

1. Keep track of any clues children find while reading the book. Give your students stickee notes while they are reading. Anytime they come across a clue, they should write it down on a stickee note. Before they read the last chapter, ask students to take all their stickee notes out of their books, put them in order, and read the clues. Can they solve the mystery before Cam and Eric?

2. Cam has a photographic memory. What does it mean to have a photographic memory? Ask students to define this term and either do research on real people who have photographic memories and how they use them OR students could write a journal entry where they pretend to have a photographic memory and how they would use it in their everyday lives.

3. This is a good book for character sketches. What are the traits of Cam and Eric? How are they alike or different? What does Mr. Adler do to make them seem like real people who you care about in this story? What about the thieves? What are their character traits? Discuss with your students which characters are more detailed and why.

If you have used this story with your students or child, please leave a comment here for others to read.

If you have a suggestion of a book for me to read and review, please email me at margodll@aol.com or leave a comment here.

photo by ten safe frogs, www.flickr.com