Calendar Mysteries – August Acrobat

Ron Roy's August Acrobat is a circus mystery for 5 year olds about a tumbledown big top and a masked trapeze star nobody will own up to.

What happens

Bradley, his twin Brian and their friends Nate and Lucy have sold a hundred tickets for the Flying Fortunatos. If every ticket goes, they get in free (plus popcorn and hot dogs, which matters a LOT to Bradley).

Then they go and look at the circus. The tent leans over as if it wants a nap. The paint on the trailer has faded and there isn't an elephant anywhere. Bradley decides it's not a circus at all. It's a disaster!

But inside the tent, someone in silver tights and a silver hood is swinging and flipping on the trapeze. Then the lights go off and the acrobat has gone. The family who run the circus say there's nobody else in the show. So who was it?

The four friends set off round Green Lawn asking everyone they meet about a person in silver tights. It's very funny. The teenagers in the diner haven't seen anyone in tights since a Spider-Man film.

There's a second puzzle too. Bradley finds a drawing at the bottom of the empty ticket box. On the back somebody has written that they hate being an acrobat, then scribbled out the rest so hard the pencil went through the paper.

The clues are all there to spot, and Bradley and Lucy get there first. Can your reader beat them to it?

The grown-ups are half the fun. Mr Linkletter at the hotel insists he never jokes (his moustache gives him away). The circus dad pretends he's about to feed the kids to the lion. And Peter the parrot will only ever say his own name.

Underneath the giggles it's a kind story. The kids sold those tickets, so they feel it's up to them to help this tired little circus. They bicker like real friends too. Brian bursts in shouting that he's first, and Bradley tells him he's slow AND second.

If you've got a reader who's just starting on chapter books and loves a puzzle, this is a really nice one to try. It's the eighth of the Calendar Mysteries and it works well on its own.

What to read next

If this one goes down well, go back to where the series starts with January Joker. The same four friends spot strange lights and a huge circle in the snow by the barn one night, and Bradley is sure it was aliens.