A to Z Mysteries – The School Skeleton

Ron Roy's The School Skeleton is a whole-school mystery for 5 year olds that starts with a paper cut and a very empty corner.

What happens

Dink gets a paper cut just before the Monday maths quiz (thanks, Josh). When he goes to the school nurse for a plaster, he notices the corner where Mr Bones always hangs. Mr Bones is the school skeleton. And he isn't there!

The head teacher calls everyone into the gym. Whichever class finds Mr Bones wins free tickets to the new aquarium, which has a baby beluga whale. Suddenly the WHOLE school is hunting for a skeleton.

Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose have a head start, because they've spotted the print of a trainer in the dust where Mr Bones used to be. It's a grown-up's left foot with a zigzag tread, exactly eleven inches long.

So they come up with a plan. They'll measure the feet of every adult in the school!

This is the best bit. Picture three children going from class to class, tracing round teachers' shoes while the little ones crowd round to watch. One by one the names get crossed off. Too small. Too big. One teacher has his foot in a cast. So who's left?

Then the mystery gets even stranger. A brand-new key turns up in a locker, wrapped in a drawing of a grinning skeleton with a big "2" on its head. Can your reader work out what that picture is trying to say? Ruth Rose cracks it over a mug of hot chocolate.

It's a lovely gentle book for this age. There's nothing spooky about the skeleton. Mr Bones is the friendly one the nurse brings round to talk about drinking milk for strong bones, and dresses up at holiday time. The school feels like a really warm place, with a reading corner full of cushions and a nurse who hands out secret chocolates.

Dink and his friends are in third grade here (it's an American school). Children who are already at school will recognise all of it, from the lockers to the sandwich swaps at lunch.

What to read next

If they enjoyed this one, The Talking T. Rex brings the friends a giant moving dinosaur, a pile of money that goes missing from inside its belly and an old friend from Montana.