Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 29 – Designed for Disaster

Carolyn Keene's Designed for Disaster is a Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew mystery for 8 year olds about a school fashion show that keeps going wrong.

What happens

Nancy, Bess and George are in third grade, and their art teacher has set the best project ever. Design anything you'd love to wear with your friends. (The boys aren't keen at first. Then somebody mentions money.)

The girls call their label Mystery Girls, and their designs get picked! A real New York designer, Juliana Marigold, is putting them in a new clothing line. She's going to launch it in the school auditorium, with real models and television crews.

Then the designs disappear. They turn up behind a filing cabinet, which seems a bit convenient. Next, clothes go missing right before rehearsals, and every one of them was designed by a River Heights child.

So who's behind it? There's Felicity, a sulky professional model who announces she hates this town. There's a classmate who's still furious her own designs weren't chosen. And there's a mum Nancy overheard whispering crossly to their teacher.

Deirdre steals the show. She starts a fashion models club on the spot, makes herself president and offers to pay the Clue Crew out of club dues that don't exist. Every school has a Deirdre, doesn't it?

It's gentle and chatty, with no real danger, just a lot of drama about whose design is best. Your reader can keep their own suspect list alongside Nancy's and see if they get there first.

It's a treat for a child who loves clothes and drawing as much as mysteries. By the end of the first day, loads of children at school are walking around with books balanced on their heads to practise their runway walk!

What to read next

If they're after another contest where all the entries vanish, try The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle. It's Fall Festival time in River Heights, and every design for the pumpkin decorating contest goes missing on the big day.