Nancy Drew Clue Book 8 – World Record Mystery

Carolyn Keene's World Record Mystery is the eighth Nancy Drew Clue Book, a solve-along mystery for 8 year olds set in a very loud arcade.

What happens

Katie McCabe is sixteen and the best in River Heights at a dance game called Dance-A-Thon. In a few hours a judge from the Beamish Book of World Records is coming to watch her beat the high score. Half the town has turned up to watch her practise.

Then Katie goes off for a drink of water, opens her bag, and her lucky headband isn't in it. She won't attempt the record without it.

Nancy, Bess and George are eight, which is young for detectives, and they know it. What they have is a notebook. Every suspect goes in it and every clue goes in it, and they work through the list.

There are plenty of suspects. A boy who wants the judge to stay long enough to watch his own record attempt. The owner of the rival arcade down the road, whose place is a ghost town because everyone is here. The teenager who currently holds the record Katie is trying to take. Even the little girl who can BeDazzle anything and was standing right beside the bag.

The best thing about these books is that partway through, the story stops and asks your reader directly. Can you solve it? Grab a sheet of paper and write down your suspects. Which clue gave it away? Then you turn the page and find out whether Nancy agrees with you.

A child who has never been invited to solve anything sits up at that. It also makes this an easy one to read together, because you both have to stop and have a go.

The three girls are drawn in about three strokes each, which is all a book this size needs. Bess is saving arcade tickets for a pink lava lamp and is nowhere near. George would take football over dancing any day. Nancy is the one who says come on, let's start by talking to Katie.

Nothing here is frightening. Nobody is in danger, there's no villain, and the worst thing that happens to anybody is a badly stained favourite shirt.

It also moves fast, with a great deal of arcade noise in it, which suits a reader who is just getting the hang of chapter books but still wants something to happen on every page.

What to read next

If your reader takes to the notebook, A Star Witness is another one to solve. A famous telescope disappears at the planetarium during an astronomy club outing, and Bess has no idea what any of the equipment is for.