Carolyn Keene’s The Secret of the Scarecrow is a Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew mystery for 8 year olds, with a stolen scarecrow and just the right amount of autumn spookiness.<\/p>\n
Nancy’s class gets a visit from Ms Franklin, who owns Darcy’s, the largest shop in River Heights. She’d like the children to come up with a scarecrow for her autumn window display. Nancy, Bess and George win, with a red coat, yellow boots and a hat covered in flowers.<\/p>\n
Not everyone is happy about it. Deirdre is a sore loser. Some of the boys wanted a sporty scarecrow for their football team. And Harvey, who’s always telling scary stories, warns everyone about Jake McStuffings, a scarecrow who jumps off his pole every autumn and roams the streets.<\/p>\n
Nobody believes Harvey. Then something small, in baggy clothes and a big hat, dances across Nancy’s front garden in the dark…<\/p>\n
Bess takes the scarecrow home for the weekend and promises to keep her safe indoors. Then she leaves her out on the porch while she pops out on an errand with her mum. You can guess what happens next.<\/p>\n
Now the Clue Crew have until Monday morning to find her before the whole class finds out. All they have is some hay and a little round red thing with two gold letters on it.<\/p>\n
It’s a lovely one to read in October. There are pumpkins, hayrides, caramel apples and a haunted-looking tree house with a ladder made of (hopefully) fake bones.<\/p>\n
The spooky bits never tip into anything frightening, though. Every time the scarecrow appears, the girls go looking, and there’s always a sensible explanation waiting.<\/p>\n
What really makes it is Bess. She’s the one who broke her promise and she’s in a total panic. She’s sure she’ll never be allowed to shop at the department store again, or visit Santa there! Nancy’s first thought is to help her best friend, and your reader will be right there with them.<\/p>\n
Each suspect gets checked properly too. Where were they at nine o’clock on Saturday? That question comes up again and again, and it’s a nice way to show a young reader how an alibi works.<\/p>\n
For more autumn in River Heights, there’s The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle. The girls are entering the Fall Festival’s pumpkin decorating contest for the very first time, and Deirdre is determined to win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carolyn Keene’s The Secret of the Scarecrow is a Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew mystery for 8 year olds, with a stolen scarecrow and just the right amount of autumn spookiness. Nancy’s class gets a visit from Ms Franklin, who owns Darcy’s, the largest shop in River Heights. She’d like the children to come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12394,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8234,"lr_next_read_anchor":"The Pumpkin Patch Puzzle","lr_seo_hook":"A class scarecrow vanishes and the Clue Crew have one weekend to find her."},"book_tag":[22],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[166],"class_list":["post-8237","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-mystery-books","age_group-books-for-8-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-carolyn-keene"],"yoast_title":"Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew 36 – The Secret of the Scarecrow by Carolyn Keene | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A class scarecrow vanishes and the Clue Crew have one weekend to find her. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n