Adventure

Independent Reading Level: Grades 2-5
Honors/Awards: Woodson Award Honor

I think 2nd-4th grade would be a good age range for this one. This is an early chapter book and would be good for students who are just beginning to get out of only picture books. This would be good to have in the classroom because it is an easy chapter book so it is longer with more content, but still is doable for younger students to read if they are at a higher reading level.

These chapter books are great for young readers. It allow students to be able to get familiar with chapter books at a healthy speed. These chapter books have a lot in the series to offer, and in each book ,the main character goes on an adventure to discover something. It is entertaining and easy to follow for young readers.

Fifth-grade sleuth Cam Jansen and her best friend Eric Shelton head to the zoo in this tenth chapter-book devoted to their mysterious adventures. Meeting up with Billy there, the children enjoy looking at the animals, until Cam discovers that some of the monkeys are missing. With the help of her photographic memory, she and Eric help to foil the thieves, and return the monkeys to their home...

Originally published in 1985, Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Monkey House was released just after I stopped reading this series, as a young girl. That said, I have fond memories of the earlier installments, which I greatly enjoyed when moving from early readers to beginning chapter-books. This entry features Billy, who is a somewhat annoying and unnecessary third wheel, clearly intimidated by Cam's photographic memory, and always popping in to relate a piece of trivia, and assure the other children that he too has a good memory. I'm not really sure why Adler felt it was necessary to add his character, unless it was to demonstrate the solidity of Cam and Eric's friendship. Leaving that aside, the mystery here was pretty obvious to an adult reader, but will perhaps be more puzzling for the intended audience. Recommended to fans of the series, and to readers just getting going with chapter-books. ( )