A to Z Mysteries – The Lucky Lottery

Ron Roy's The Lucky Lottery is a snowy Christmas mystery for 5 year olds about a winning ticket that vanishes from a mantelpiece.

What happens

It's the holidays in Green Lawn and Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose are in the middle of a snowball fight. Then two little O'Learys turn up with an urgent note from their big brother, Lucky.

Lucky is home from college and minding his six younger brothers and sisters. (Lunch is six grilled-cheese sandwiches, six glasses of milk and six bananas.) Every Christmas their grandfather posts a card with seven lottery tickets inside, one for each grandchild. This year one of those tickets has won seven MILLION dollars.

And the card has gone.

Someone walked in through the back door (the lock hasn't worked for years) and took it. Tomorrow morning the thief can swap it for the money. So the three friends have one snowy day to track the thief down.

The clues are lovely for a young detective. There are footprints in fresh snow and a tiny bow tie made of tinfoil. There's a room full of parakeets at Gramps's retirement home, where a bird called Blue Boy loves anything shiny (and decides Ruth Rose's headband is the shiniest thing going). Your reader can keep track and have a guess before Dink pieces it together.

There's lots of fun along the way too. Josh draws a suspect from a description, which goes somewhere very funny. Ruth Rose teaches the boys to cross-country ski, and Josh falls straight into a snowbank. Then it's out at dawn on skis, with the snow turning silver and gold.

Josh is hungry the whole time, of course. Hot chocolate with a mountain of whipped cream at Ellie's diner? Twice in one day? He'd say that's just good detective work.

It's a very cosy one to read in winter. The crime is a theft, nobody gets hurt, and the friends are kind to each other even while they tease. The setting is American, so expect dollars, a college and a "Christmas vacation".

What to read next

If this one goes down well, The Missing Mummy is in the library too. This time it's summer, and a child mummy is snatched from a museum tomb right in front of them.