Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 13 – Chick-napped!

Carolyn Keene's Chick-napped is the thirteenth Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew mystery, a classroom case for 8 year olds about twelve baby chicks that go missing from a locked room.

What happens

For three weeks Mrs Ramirez's class has been looking after twelve eggs in an incubator. They've turned them three times a day and kept chick journals. Today is Day 21, and they're due to hatch.

Tommy Maron is the chicks' biggest fan. He's written them poems and songs, made a "Welcome, Chicks!" poster and baked them a birthday cake. He's even named every single one (seven of them turn out to be girls, so one of the girls is called Fred).

Not everyone is thrilled, though. It's also Catherine Spangler's birthday, and nobody has remembered. Nancy, George and Bess notice, and they spend recess making her a card with very messy markers.

Then things start going wrong. Tommy's poster is scribbled all over in a blue-green marker that smells of bubblegum (Bess says aquamarine, George says turquoise, and they never agree). The chick food disappears next. And on Monday morning the whole box of chicks is gone.

The door was locked. The janitor thought the teacher had taken them home. So who had a key, and who had a reason?

This is a gentle first taste of detective work. Nancy sniffs the poster and finds a button by the pen. She also works out that whoever took the chicks needed a reason AND a chance to do it. Your reader gets to follow each clue with her. They can make their own guess before the girls do.

The jokes come from the three friends. George and Bess are cousins who couldn't be more different, and their squabbles over colours are very funny. There's a mix-and-match pyjama sleepover with popcorn and hot chocolate too. It's a lovely picture of a friendship that works.

The only unkind bit is class joker Antonio, who tells everyone the chicks will end up as fried chicken and later claims he fed them to his cat. He's winding people up, and Nancy spots it straight away, but a very tender-hearted chick lover might need to hear that.

What to read next

If your reader loves animals as much as mysteries, the next Clue Crew book, Zoo Crew, sends the three friends to three days of camp at the River Heights Zoo.