Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 31 – The Make-a-Pet Mystery

Carolyn Keene's The Make-a-Pet Mystery is a Clue Crew case for 8 year olds about a missing toy bunny and a friendship gone wobbly.

What happens

Everyone in Nancy Drew's class has gone mad for Make-a-Pets. You pick your pet, stuff it, dress it and fill in its birth certificate. Nancy makes a puppy called Mocha Chip, after her real puppy, Chocolate Chip. George's bear wears a karate outfit (of course it does).

There's an online game that goes with the pets, and the girls start a contest to see who can score the most points by the end of the week.

Then Violet's bunny, Hoppity, vanishes from her cubby at school. And somebody starts logging into Violet's game as her and making her character do daft things on purpose.

Violet hires the Clue Crew. Their only clue is a squishy blue ring shaped like a doughnut, found at the back of the cubby. Nobody can work out what it is. A doll's bracelet? A dog toy? Food from outer space?

The best bit is how real the squabbles feel. Violet and her best friend Sonia fall out over who thought of the name Hoppity first. It's exactly the kind of row that happens in every classroom, and it matters to the mystery.

There's a sensible little thread about passwords, too. Violet happily tells a whole room of friends what hers is going to be, and it causes trouble. It might just start a useful chat at home!

The whole thing is short and warm. The girls get it wrong more than once before they get it right, and everyone ends up friends. It even finishes with instructions for making a cosy shoebox bed for a favourite soft toy.

If your reader loves their soft toys as much as Nancy loves Mocha Chip, they'll be right there with Violet. Who hasn't panicked about a lost teddy?

What to read next

For another Clue Crew case with a festival contest at its heart, try The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle.