Hardy Boys Clue Book 05 – Scavenger Hunt Heist

Franklin W Dixon's Scavenger Hunt Heist is a Hardy Boys mystery for 7 year olds about a school trip to a place called Bear Park.

What happens

Frank Hardy is nine and he'd really rather not meet a bear. So a school outing to Bayport's Bear Park has him clutching his tummy at breakfast. His eight-year-old brother Joe has a name for it. FOFT, or Fear of Field Trip.

Mum promises there aren't any real bears at Bear Park. It's just a name. (The park ranger never quite says no, which Frank notices straight away.)

The class is split into teams for a scavenger hunt, with a rhyming clue for each thing they have to find. The prize is a huge piñata shaped like a beehive and stuffed with sweets and toys. The brothers end up on a team with Phil, who's never without a gadget, and Lolly Sugarman, who's never without something sugary.

Then the piñata disappears from the visitors' cabin. All that's left is a few shreds of yellow paper. Now the brothers have two things to crack at once. The clues for the hunt and the case of who took the prize.

It's book five of the Clue Book series, and it's a lovely one for joining in. Your reader can solve the rhymes alongside the team (a feather, some mud, a stick shaped like a Y). Frank keeps a notebook with the five Ws in it, and one word at the top of the first page, from something Dad said at breakfast. Proof!

Just as the case comes together, the story stops and asks your reader for their own list of suspects. So have a pencil handy.

There's plenty of silliness too. Lolly makes mud out of fruit punch when there's no rain. A mud fight follows. The boys have a sword fight with sticks while the girls roll their eyes at them.

The best bit is Frank. He's scared the whole way round and he keeps going anyway. That's worth talking about with a child who worries about new places.

What to read next

If they want to go back to where the Clue Books began, try The Video Game Bandit. The brothers are helping at their baseball team's fund-raiser, where a brand-new games console is the star prize at the auction.