Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie (Cam Jansen Mysteries, #8)

My rating:

add to my books

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie (Cam Jansen Mysteries #8)

by David A. Adler, Susanna Natti (Illustrator)

3.89 · rating details · 107 ratings · 6 reviews

The Cam Jansen books are perfect for young readers who are making the transition to chapter books, and Cam is a spunky young heroine whom readers have loved for over two decades. Now the first ten books in the series have updated covers that bring new life to these perennial best-sellers. Old fans and new readers will love Cam's cool, modern look!

Paperback, 64 pages

Published July 22nd 2004 by Puffin

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

More…

There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists. Add this book to your favorite list »

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 168)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Apr 20, 2011

Sarah rated it

Shelves: mystery, novel, childrens, youth

The original Cam Jansen series follows the exploits of 10-year-old 5th grader Jennifer "the Camera" (aka "Cam") Jansen and her best friend, classmate, and neighbor Eric Shelton. Cam got her nickname because of her photographic memory. All she has to do is say "Click," and Cam can remember everything she's seen, which comes in pretty handy when trying to solve mysteries.

David Adler has written several beginning chapter book series, but Cam Jansen is one o...moreThe original Cam Jansen series follows the exploits of 10-year-old 5th grader Jennifer "the Camera" (aka "Cam") Jansen and her best friend, classmate, and neighbor Eric Shelton. Cam got her nickname because of her photographic memory. All she has to do is say "Click," and Cam can remember everything she's seen, which comes in pretty handy when trying to solve mysteries.

David Adler has written several beginning chapter book series, but Cam Jansen is one of the earliest and most successful. He's been writing the series since 1980 and now writes roughly one volume per year. He has also started a Young Cam Jansen series of even simpler chapter books. Reading level wise, I'd say children they'd interest children from kindergarden through fifth grade who are just starting to read chapter books. I didn't read any of the the young Cam Jansen books, but it looks like they're more limited in scope and probably would be considered "baby books" to anyone beyond 2nd grade.

Because the books are so short, I read essentially the first half of the series and the 25th anniversary special "The Valentine Day Baby Mystery" where Cam's mom has twins, ending Cam's only child status, and Eric's mom has her car stolen, only to be returned when Cam's quick thinking discovers the thief.

Overall I was surprised at how engaging these stories were. I would totally recommend them to children just starting to read chapter books. The print is big and there are still several black and white drawings scattered throughout the text, making them an easy transition from picture books. Plus, they're well-written enough that I think they can nudge children to move on to better quality titles as they move on to longer chapter books.

Of course they're not perfect, though. It seems that adults Cam and Eric interact with choose to not accept Cam's photographic memory only when it's necessary to create tension in the story. Otherwise most adults take for granted that this 10-year-old can solve diamond thefts and bank robberies. Still, it has to be empowering for kids to read about someone close to their age solving mysteries like that.

I was also kind of bothered by the way Cam always ends up being right. Sometimes she comes off as a little too cocky and unwilling to listen to others. In nearly every story Eric plays the wet blanket suggesting that they tell an adult what they've discovered rather than trying to catch the bad guy on their own. However Cam always forges ahead and ends up getting her suspect. Again, I'm sure kids love the feeling of accomplishment, but sometimes it feels like Cam's walking the fine line between extreme confidence and recklessness, as in the Chocolate Fudge Mystery where she trespasses into someone's back yard just because she thinks it's weird that no one's home. Her dad and Eric both tell her she shouldn't be doing this, but Cam doesn't care because she's certain there's a mystery to be solved. She turns out be right (there's a bank robber hiding in the house) and her disregard for strangers' privacy is forgotten.

And honestly, that's the problem I had with these books when I was little. While it was cool to read about a kid doing cool stuff like solving robberies, I could always tell that the stories weren't quite true to real life. I guess that's why I always preferred stories of kids doing amazing things that were based off real stories like Island of the Blue Dolphins or at least seemed more realistic.

My husband, however, loved these books as a kid and said he read every one he could get his hands on when he was younger, so I guess that's at least some proof of their appeal to both sexes. Both libraries I checked these books out from had multiple copies of the titles in this series and even then I had trouble finding all the titles actually on the shelf, so they continue to be popular titles. I think they would be great additions to a school or public library collection.(less)

· see review

May 03, 2010

Dolly rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: parents reading with their children

Shelves: 2010, childrens, mysteries, monsters

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

· see review

Sep 08, 2009

Chak rated it

Shelves: kid

I really like Cam Jansen books a lot, but the one thing that I don't like is that she often does things I would consider dangerous while she is solving a mystery. She doesn't do anything questionable in the Young Cam Jansen series, BTW. Well, they are still entertaining and gives me a lot to talk about with my son about what not to do.

· see review

Oct 30, 2010

Anna rated it

Shelves: read-by-myself

In the movie the shoes came alive. They were attacking the humans. Then the show got shut off. It was because that the actress stole the other part of the movie because she thought that she didn't act good in it.

· see review

Jul 23, 2011

Marcia rated it

This book would probably be very enjoyable to read if I were 7. Unfortunately I am not. We listened to this as an audio book on a long drive. This book helped to make the drive even longer. But like I said if I were 7 or 8 I might love it. My daughter has read many many of these books.

· see review

Jun 01, 2008

Sara added it

Someone steels a tape to a monster movie.

· see review

Feb 09, 2012

Vicki Lee rated it

Feb 09, 2012

Ms. Cutshall Class added it

Feb 08, 2012

Sam rated it

Feb 04, 2012

Noah Chanthongthip rated it

Feb 01, 2012

Wendy rated it

Jan 27, 2012

Ellie Ayers rated it

Jan 19, 2012

Jill added it

Jan 17, 2012

Dylan Morse added it

Jan 20, 2012

Elisa rated it

Shelves: read-aloud

Jan 16, 2012

Annie rated it

Jan 11, 2012

Elis Jimi added it

Jan 08, 2012

Genevieve rated it

Dec 31, 2011

Cat Cooper rated it

Dec 28, 2011

AshPash added it

Dec 27, 2011

Taylor rated it

Dec 25, 2011

Gary rated it

Dec 22, 2011

Paige816 marked it as to-read

Dec 18, 2011

Holly rated it

Shelves: childhood, fiction

Dec 17, 2011

Carrie rated it

Dec 15, 2011

Michelle rated it

Dec 13, 2011

Nichole rated it

Dec 11, 2011

Rayhan marked it as to-read

Dec 09, 2011

Kelly rated it

Dec 07, 2011

Arcgremlin rated it

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Be the first to start one »

Recommend it | Stats | Recent status updates

combine
Other Editions (9)

More editions...

Genres

Mystery

8 users

Childrens

6 users

Realistic Fiction

2 users

See top shelves...

Readers Also Enjoyed

About David A. Adler

Adler was born in New York City, New York. He graduated from Queens College in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics and education. For the next nine years, he worked as a mathematics teacher for the New York City Board of Education, while taking classes towards a master's degree in marketing, a degree he was awarded by New York University in 1971. In that same year, a question from his then-...more

More about David A. Adler...

Books by David A. Adler

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds (Cam Jansen Mysteries, #1)

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Dinosaur Bones (Cam Jansen Mysteries, #3)

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Television Dog (Cam Jansen Mysteries, #4)

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the UFO (Cam Jansen Mysteries, #2)

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball (Cam Jansen Mysteries, #6)

More…

Share This Book

Facebook Twitter Your website

Pin It

Trivia About Cam Jansen and th...

No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »

title link	preview: Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie
avg rating	preview: Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie Goodreads rating: 3.89 (107 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/284072.Cam_Jansen_and_the_Mystery_of_the_Monster_Movie?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1311648592m/284072.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/284072.Cam_Jansen_and_the_Mystery_of_the_Monster_Movie?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie by David A. Adler[/url]

Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Monster Movie (Cam Jansen Mysteries #8)

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

combine Other Editions (9)

Genres

Readers Also Enjoyed

About David A. Adler

Books by David A. Adler

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About Cam Jansen and th...

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (9)