Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 22 – Unicorn Uproar

Carolyn Keene's Unicorn Uproar is a Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew mystery for 8 year olds about a unicorn that disappears from a medieval fair.

What happens

It's number 22 in the Clue Crew series. Nancy Drew is eight here, and she and her best friends Bess and George run their own detective club.

The Dragon's Breath Fair has come to River Heights for the weekend. There are knights, jousting, jugglers and a mayor clanking about in a suit of armour. Nancy spends five dollars on a purple magic wand with lavender ribbons. Then Bess spots Sparkle, a white unicorn with a silver horn.

Nancy jokingly points her wand at a spoiled older girl and wishes her gone. Not long afterwards Sparkle has vanished from a pen with the gate still latched.

You can guess who Bess blames. Is the wand really magic? Nancy's sure it isn't. Then Hannah's vegetable patch at home is stripped bare overnight, and even Nancy starts to wonder.

That's what makes this one such fun. Your reader gets a proper little mystery, with suspects and clues (a tiny golden bell, lots of hoofprints). Alongside it they get Nancy secretly worrying that she's caused the whole thing (which is exactly how a busy young mind works).

The suspects are brilliant. There's Toby from their class, who wears a jester's cap and wants a dollar for every joke. And there's Destiny, a fifth grader who wants the unicorn for her Totally Tubular Tenth Birthday Party. What Destiny wants, Destiny usually gets.

The girls borrow medieval costumes to sneak into that party. It doesn't go quite to plan (a dragon is involved).

It's warm and funny all the way through. George hates her real name and flatly refuses to wear a long dress. Bess tries on a flower garland and asks if it makes her look princessy. The three of them tease each other the way real friends do.

If you're looking for a first detective series for a child who's just found chapter books, the Clue Crew is a safe bet.

What to read next

For another case at a fair, try Ticket Trouble. This time the girls are at their school's autumn festival, with a roller coaster, arcade games and a pocketful of ride tickets.