Hardy Boys Clue Book 10 – The Great Pumpkin Smash

Franklin W Dixon's The Great Pumpkin Smash is a Halloween mystery for 7 year olds about a zoo party and a tent full of squashed pumpkins.

What happens

It's Boo at the Zoo in Bayport. Nine-year-old Frank is dressed as Dr Frankenstein and his brother Joe is the monster. Their friend Chet has come as a giant squeezy bottle of ketchup (and packed a can of whipped cream for the pie-eating contest, just in case).

There's a strongman show, a spooky karaoke contest and a pumpkin-painting competition. But while everyone's watching the show, somebody gets into the pumpkin tent. Every painted pumpkin is smashed to bits.

The zoo director is furious. If the smashers don't own up before the day is out, there'll be no more Boo at the Zoo. Ever. So out comes the brothers' clue book.

Frank and Joe work through their five Ws (who, what, where, when and why) and build a suspect list. There's a sulky kid sculptor whose entry got thrown out, the town bully and his friends with some very suspicious mallets, and even the boys' own hero, Victor the Constrictor.

It's silly in the best way. The jokes come thick and fast, plenty of them groan-worthy puns. Joe refuses point blank to set foot in the Haunted Woods. And a giraffe helps itself to his hot dog at exactly the wrong moment.

The best part of these Clue Books is that your reader gets to play detective too. Just before the answer, the story stops and asks them to have a go at solving it, with a few questions to think about. Who doesn't love feeling one step ahead of the detectives?

The scares are all the dressing-up kind. The zombies are kids in make-up and the snakes that drop from the ceiling are rubber. It's a good pick for a child who likes Halloween for the costumes more than the frights.

What to read next

If they enjoy playing along, go back to The Video Game Bandit, the very first Hardy Boys Clue Book, where a brand-new games console is the star prize at the brothers' baseball fundraiser.