When I started this, I thought "oh man, American Girl's about to teach kids about communes: let's see how well this goes in chapterbook format" but, it was really well crafted- a mystery with multiple potential suspects (and enough tells to indicate some obvious ones were red herrings but still stringing the reader along) and planting some seeds for young readers to think about how farm communities can change to stay afloat while not betraying their structure. Like [b:The Tangled Web: A Julie Mystery|4520292|The Tangled Web A Julie Mystery (American Girl Mysteries)|Kathryn Reiss|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1416035167l/4520292._SX50_.jpg|4569374], the Vietnam War floats indirectly as the reason why some of the adults have made certain choices, but as Julie is a 10 year old, she doesn't know the nitty gritty details of that. ( )