Ron Roy’s The Bald Bandit is a Halloween mystery for 5 year olds about a bank robbery, a missing videotape and a hundred-dollar reward.<\/p>\n
It’s the day before Halloween. Dink is trying out his plastic vampire fangs. Josh is tearing a green sheet into strips to be a swamp monster. And Ruth Rose turns up as Elvis (wig, fake eyebrows and all).<\/p>\n
Then the doorbell goes again. A tall man in a suit says he’s Detective Reddy. Someone has robbed the Green Lawn bank, and a teenager walking past caught the robber on his video camera. The detective needs that tape. Find the kid and there’s a hundred dollars each in it for them!<\/p>\n
So the hunt is on. A stakeout at the high school gets them nowhere. Then on Halloween night, out in their costumes with their sweet bags, they ask at every door about a tall, skinny redhead. Who’s going to suspect a vampire, a swamp monster and Elvis?<\/p>\n
The clue that cracks it comes from a very silly place. Dink’s shoe-polish vampire hair won’t wash out the next morning (it goes the colour of rust). A trip to Howard the barber sorts out more than his hair.<\/p>\n
This is the second of the A to Z Mysteries, and it’s quick and chatty with lots of back-and-forth between the three friends. Josh teases. Ruth Rose shouts (VERY loudly). Dink makes the plans. Your reader gets to spot the clues on that tape right alongside them.<\/p>\n
It’s worth knowing that the last few chapters get tense for this shelf. A grown-up turns up at Dink’s house while the three of them are home alone, and he grabs Ruth Rose for a moment before the police step in. Nobody is hurt and it’s over fast. A child who’s easily spooked by strangers might like you close by for that bit.<\/p>\n
There’s a really kind ending too. Lucky, the teenager with the tape, has had a rotten few months, and the three friends do something generous about it.<\/p>\n
If they’re keen for another case around Green Lawn, The Canary Caper has the same three friends searching for a neighbour’s missing canary, and then a missing cat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ron Roy’s The Bald Bandit is a Halloween mystery for 5 year olds about a bank robbery, a missing videotape and a hundred-dollar reward. It’s the day before Halloween. Dink is trying out his plastic vampire fangs. Josh is tearing a green sheet into strips to be a swamp monster. And Ruth Rose turns up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13618,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":6718,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Canary Caper","lr_seo_hook":"Trick-or-treating doubles as a hunt for the boy who filmed a bank robber.","lr_series_id":342,"lr_series_name":"A to Z Mysteries","lr_series_position":2,"lr_series_label":""},"book_tag":[1045],"age_group":[21],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[1070],"class_list":["post-13619","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-adventure-books","age_group-books-for-5-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-ron-roy"],"yoast_title":"A to Z Mysteries – The Bald Bandit by Ron Roy | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"Trick-or-treating doubles as a hunt for the boy who filmed a bank robber. For ages 5+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n