Carolyn Keene’s A Musical Mess is a Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew mystery for 8 year olds about a star dog who suddenly forgets how to be a star.<\/p>\n
A real Broadway musical has come to River Heights. It’s called Francie, and it’s about a farm girl who crosses the whole country to find a lost dog’s owner. Thanks to George’s mum, who’s catering the opening-night party, the girls have seats in the very front row!<\/p>\n
The real star is Sammy, an Airedale terrier with a white star-shaped patch on his leg. He licks Kira, the girl who plays Francie, at exactly the right moments in the big song. He even has his own dressing room with a canopy dog bed and crystal treat jars (Bess is VERY impressed).<\/p>\n
It’s not a smooth opening day. A pirate from a rival theatre group boos the whole ceremony, then sneezes his head off. Class pest Antonio sneaks Kira a trick pen that squirts ink in her face. And that afternoon, when the curtain goes up, Sammy howls all the way through the song and charges straight into a haystack. The show is cancelled.<\/p>\n
Nancy has a hunch nobody else does. What if that wasn’t Sammy at all?<\/p>\n
The best bit is the detective work. The girls build a time line on George’s laptop at Nancy’s picnic table. They also realise that paw prints might be as unique as fingerprints. Luckily Bess got a “pawtograph” from Sammy that morning, and a dog has just left a strawberry-jam paw print on George’s T-shirt.<\/p>\n
It’s properly funny too. Bess and George tease each other all the way through. George gets dragged through a paddling pool by a very excited dog, and Bess announces that there’s nothing yuckier than dog spit (she has reason to know).<\/p>\n
If you’ve got a reader who loves dogs, this is a really easy one to hand over. There’s nothing frightening in it, just a dog, a mystery and a lot of show tunes. The friends get to be clever and kind together, and there’s a make-your-own autograph book activity after the story.<\/p>\n
If they want another one straight away, the next case, Museum Mayhem, starts in art class with the girls drawing self-portraits for the coolest teacher in school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Carolyn Keene’s A Musical Mess is a Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew mystery for 8 year olds about a star dog who suddenly forgets how to be a star. A real Broadway musical has come to River Heights. It’s called Francie, and it’s about a farm girl who crosses the whole country to find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12396,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":8240,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Museum Mayhem","lr_seo_hook":"A Broadway star dog goes wild on opening night, and Nancy suspects a swap."},"book_tag":[22],"age_group":[26],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[166],"class_list":["post-8239","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 38 – A Musical Mess by Carolyn Keene | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"A Broadway star dog goes wild on opening night, and Nancy suspects a swap. For ages 8+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n