Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 33 – The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle

Carolyn Keene's The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle is a Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew mystery for 8 year olds about a pumpkin-decorating contest that's wrecked before it even starts.

What happens

Nancy, Bess and George can't wait for the River Heights Fall Festival. The best bit is the pumpkin-decorating contest, and this year they're entering too, which they've never done before.

They practise at Nancy's house first. George makes a pumpkin that looks like a music player (with headphones for ears). Bess goes for a princess with a gold felt crown. And Nancy turns hers into her dog, Chocolate Chip.

There's a new girl in class, too. Emma has moved from California to stay with her aunt for a year while her parents work in London. Her aunt happens to run the whole festival. And Emma thinks the festival is "stupid", and says so, loudly.

Then all the design entries go missing and the craft things for the contest get trashed. If nobody owns up by the end of the festival, the contest is off. A whole town tradition is suddenly resting on the Clue Crew.

The suspects are the fun part. There's Deirdre, one of the meaner girls in class, who's sure she's going to win. There's Madison, who wants to win so badly because of a place at an arts camp. And there's Emma, who plainly hates the whole thing. Who would your reader suspect first?

What's nice is how the story treats Emma. Nancy's dad reminds her that moving is hard and Emma probably misses her mum and dad. So Nancy keeps being kind, even when Emma makes it tricky. That'll feel very real to any child who's been the new one (or had a new one join their class).

Plus there's Emma's little sister in a ghost costume, jumping out at people on the way home from school. Very autumn!

What to read next

If they're after another autumn case, The Secret of the Scarecrow has the class designing a scarecrow for the window of the biggest department store in town. Of course Nancy, Bess and George team up to enter.