El detective deductivo / The Deductive Detective (Arbordale Collection)

by Brian Rock, Sherry Rogers (Illustrator)

Alguien se robó un pastel del concurso de pasteles ¿quién puede ser? Doce animales pasteleros son los posibles sospechosos pero el detective Pato utilize sus habilidades de razonamiento deductive para resolver el caso . Después de todo, el ladrón ha dejado un rastro de pelos así que, no puede ser un ave. Sigue la historia mientras el detective descarta a cada sospechoso, uno a la vez, para descubrir quién fue el culpable. Esta ingeniosa historia tendrá a los niños de todas las edades riéndose de los juegos de palabras.

Genres: Mystery, Picture Books, Childrens, Mathematics, Animals, Spanish Literature, Logic

32 pages, Hardcover

First published February 10, 2013

About the author

Brian Rock is a children’s author and former school teacher who lives in Chesterfield, VA with his wife, daughter and of course, his many imaginary friends.

He has enjoyed writing stories since he was old enough to hold a no. 2 pencil. Although he was once put out of class for writing too many stories, he went on to receive a master’s degree in Creative Writing and Children’s Literature from Hollins University. Along the way, Brian has performed as a stand-up comic, worked as a “McCountant,” and written award winning country songs for his band Family Reunion. He also contributes to the Richmond Children's Writers blog.

Reviews

[Whitni]

The Deductive Detective is charming mystery picture book that also introduces the topic of deductive reasoning. This story follows Duck, the deductive detective, in his investigation to uncover the thief that stole a cake from the cake contest. Duck investigates a variety of animals in his search. Every child will have see an animal that they love in this book. This story was filled with quick jokes and puns, which I absolutely loved, and I have no doubt your students or child will as well. The illustrations throughout the story are warm and inviting without being overwhelming for younger children. As Duck eliminates his animal friends as potential suspects, they are subtracted from a total pool of subjects to get a new number representation of animals left to be interrogated. This is represented as subtraction problems throughout the book.

This book is my personal favorite of all the books I have reviewed. This book is best fit for students in kindergarten or first grade. Because of the mystery genre of the book, this book is a perfect fit for discussing key details and who, what, when, where, and why. This story also has multiple cross-curricular teaching points outside of reading. A teacher or parent could use this book for math and writing as well. I think this story is a wonderful tool to entertain and keep your students engaged, regardless of the subject it is being used for.

[Amy H. Sturgis]

I received this book as part of the Goodreads First Reads program.

My interest in this book springs from the fact I'm always on the lookout for works for my baby niece that will entertain and educate her and introduce her to things I love. Seeing the "Deductive Detective" wearing a deerstalker cap and carrying a magnifying glass, I deduced(!) that this might book serve as an early introduction to Sherlock Holmes and his ilk.

I was delighted to discover it was this and much more.

Duck, the deductive detective, must solve the mystery of who stole one of the cakes from the cake contest. Each of the thirteen contestants is a different animal, and as Duck investigates, each animal gets the spotlight (and usually a delightful pun, as well). The illustrations are engaging, and the writing is marvelously fun, designed to play to different age groups at the same time, from the little ones who will know what sounds each animal makes to the adults who will catch some of the more advanced wordplay.

The lessons in subtraction and deductive logic flow naturally from the story and its illustrations. There are also two activity pages in the back of the book, one requiring deductive reasoning and the other inviting readers to compare and contrast the different animals featured in the story (or, to put it another way, to see AND observe)! These materials are well devised and cleverly done.

This is everything a children's book should be: engaging, imaginative, amusing, and educational, as well as a launchpad for further reading, thinking, and exploring. I'll definitely be sharing this with my niece, and I recommend it for other young readers, as well.

[Heidi]

Ha, ha. Hee, hee. This book made me laugh. Not only does this book do an excellent job of providing an easily understandable look at deductive reasoning and how it works, but the use of wordplay makes it funny as well. When Duck is called in to find Fox's missing cake, he methodically goes through the clues and the twelve suspects until he uncovers the thief. Each clue eliminates one suspect through deductive reasoning. A book like this could easily come off as didactic, but it didn't feel that way at all to me. The book is easy to read and perfect for sharing. There are many applications for classroom use, but it is also just a fun story. For teachers there is a wonderful explanation and activity at the end of the book about deductive reasoning, using logic and facts to come to a conclusion, making a complex subject understandable for the youngest student. The illustrations are bright and cheerful and appealing. I had to laugh seeing duck wearing a suit. ;) Highly recommended for fun and learning.

[Barbara]

When a cake disappears from the cake contest, Detective Duck solves the case by subtracting suspects, one by one. Each double-page spread contains text and then a subtraction problem that shows how he is narrowing down his focus.

[Mikayla Newsome]

This book was adorable! the characters in the book are all different types of animals that children should be familiar with. In the book, Detective Duck is trying to find which animal took the missing cake. He eliminates different suspects out one at a time by following, finding, and analyzing clues. The author's use of wordplay throughout the book was creative and hilarious. This book incorporates the concepts of deduction/subtraction and deductive reasoning skills through each of its' pages. Every time Detective Duck eliminates a suspect, the book also provides the subtraction equation.

I would use this book with kindergarten through third grade. For the younger grades, the focus could be on the subtraction aspect of the book. One activity that could accompany this would be to have printed pictures of each of the animal suspects for students to use as manipulatives. Students could follow along with the book and physically take away each animal as it was eliminated. Students could also practice making predictions of which animal they think took the cake. For older students, the focus could be more on deductive reasoning. Students could further practice deductive reasoning by playing the game "Guess Who?" or their own version which they create. They could write down clues as to solve the game. This book could also be used as a mentor text for writing when teaching about organization of writing, specifically sequencing.

[Kaelyn]

This silly mystery book is bound to bring some laughs and comments from all students. You may even find some students want to be deductive detectives after reading this book! The Deductive Detective is a mystery/fiction book that involves a duck detective solving the biggest mystery of the town: the missing cake. All the animals in the town have come together for a large cake baking contest. With one cake missing Duck is using his sleuthing skills to solve who stole foxes cake. Duck goes to every contestant and uses his magnified glass, asking them questions and looking for clues. He finds hairs and spilled bags of flour but he has still not found the cake thief! Out of all 12 suspects find out who Detective Duck catches in the act!

This book is silly and great to read to younger reader, probably first or second grade. With this in mind this book has the amazing additional component of math on every page! With each suspect marked off there is a subtraction problem shown. The duck goes around interviewing every animal that could have been the thief, and with every animal pleading their case his list of suspects gets shorter and shorter. This book would be a great "dual-purpose" book. I could talk about the content of the story but also read-aloud the math problems on each page and connect it back to some subtraction unit they are learning at this age. This was a great find and something I will recommend to all teachers!

[Jessie Boyette]

This cute little mystery story can be entertaining and engaging for students. The Deductive Detective is a mystery book that tells the story of the Detective Duck solving the town mystery of the stolen cake from the cake contest. The town is having a cake contest while all the animals make their own cakes, but OH NO! the foxes cake has gone missing. Throughout the story, the Duck eliminates each suspect at a time to reveal just who the culprit could be. The Duck becomes very determined to figure out who stole the cake, he questions all the animals in town to get to the bottom of this mystery. The story will have children curious but giggling throughout the whole mystery.

This book is appropriate for children in the 1st Grade. The Deductive Detective incorporate many different elements that could be learning tools for the students. The Duck begins "subtracting" in order to find who stole the cake, this could support the student's math skills by introducing subtracting problems. Also, this book could be a beginning resource to have the students become detectives themselves. A follow-up activity could be introduced by the teacher in allowing the students to become detectives in learning how to ask questions to solves particular problems/situations. This is such an amazing and CUTE book for students!!

[Rose Rosetree]

Right away, that title makes me think. "The DEDUCTIVE Detective"?

For kids at picture book level?

Certainly. Because, in the words of the publisher on the front jacket flap:

"Detective Duck uses his deductive reasoning skills to 'quack' the case."

Plus, plenty of learning is built into this entertaining mystery book.

FIVE STARS and a big smile. Because this has to be the wittiest picture book I've ever seen. The text brims over with plays on words and even some excellent puns. For instance:

"I have claws on my paws," said Tiger.

"That's why I always bake from scratch."

EXTRA SECTIONS SUPPLEMENT THIS BOOK

Clever questions help readers think logically, which is so essential for deductive reasoning.

Additional questions help readers to compare and contrast the animal suspects. Surely, this is a good start for all STEM students of the future.

LOVE!!!!!

[Adam Arzberger]

My year 1 class and I had loads of fun with this book subtracting one suspect at a time to discover who stole the cake. I had planned to have them following along using a number line to show each deduction but I completely forgot once we started enjoying the story; lots of children did however choose to write their ‘detective notes’ as number sentences on their whiteboards as we went.

After solving the case, we then worked on a new case that I’d written to find out who stole Cow’s milk. This involved deducting more than one suspect at a time and again they write their detective notes whilst we worked on it together.

[Ryen Giddings]

"The Deductive Detective" is a great book for young learners when it comes to learning addition, subtraction, fluency, and inferencing before and during a story. The duck detective is trying to solve the mystery of the stolen cake, the duck starts by adding all the contestants in the cake baking contest and then subtracts as he goes through each suspect until he concludes who the thief is. This book is great when it comes to engaging students when they are reading, as well as incorporating math skills, such as addition, subtraction, and counting.

[Daija]

This book is for children. The key topic is to show the process of elimination with things. In this story the duck was trying to figure out who stole the fox’s cake. To do this, the duck interviewed everyone to see who could possibly steal the cake. After interviewing everyone and finding clues, the duck found out who the thief was. I rate this story a 5/5 because it’s something kids could learn from. They can learn to use the process of elimination to do things in life and it’s very important.

[Gretchen]

This book is great to teach students about using clues to discover an answer (convergent thinking) which is one of the thinking skills I teach to primary students. They love the idea of a mystery and of course that it is a duck detective and I love that the duck explains his thinking about each clue and why it rules out a suspect. It is a fun book that really helps to teach about a mystery and how clues are used. Of course it can also just be used as a fun read!

[Alli Divin]

The Deductive Detective is such a cute book to read to students. A duck must solve the mystery about a cake thief loose around his town. The Duck Detective must follow all the clues and find the culprit behind all the missing cakes. This book will teach problem solving skills to students and create anticipation with each page.

[Allison Ray]

This is a super cute book that involves many different animals and personalities. While the animals are trying to figure out who stole the cake from the contest, math is being used and shown for the students to follow along with how many more suspects there are. This would be a great book to read while doing a math lesson about subtraction and deductive reasoning.

[Anastasia Thomason]

In this crazy story a cake goes missing and there's 12 suspects. Who could it be? Thats what Detective Duck is here to find out! In this book of twists and turns, you better hold on and keep reading to see who took the cake. This was a great book, good for younger children and fun to keep reading on!

[Julia Ridings]

I love this book. I can relate this to math detective work on a Friday. Students will have to solve the puzzle and tell me the "criminal" by the end of the period. I love how the duck kept eliminating a suspect because the evidence didn't show that the animal was the one who stole the birthday cake. It was a great book with detective work and I can add math to make it relate to math.

[Lynn Davidson]

Detective Duck is asked to find out who stole a cake from the cake contest. He uses deductive reasoning to solve the case, which demonstrates easy math to readers. Also, there are funny play-on-words and clever clues to follow. Fun story and very nice illustrations.

[Jasmine]

This book is really amazing show children subtraction when it comes to lowering the number of suspects to find the culprit of stealing the Fox's cake. The illustrations was not plain or too much, so it fits well for children to enjoy reading about.

[P. B. Yeary]

My daughter loved it. I thought it was great but it could have been better. Visit by blog: https://pbjellytalez.blogspot.com/ to see what I mean. I break down popular picture books to see what makes them tick. Suggest new books for defend your favorites in the comments. Thanks for stopping by!

[emyrose8]

Inspires critical thinking and deductive reasoning

[Baylee]

Read this because the Author lives only a few towns from me, I didn’t expect it to be that cute !!!

[Karina Galo]

El audiolibro me gustó mucho.

[Ann Hackworth]

This is a great mystery book for early elementary grades and can even be used for learning subtraction. Super cute!!

[Erin Rice]

This book is great to read to the younger students! It makes for a fun solving mystery by using deductive reasoning and subtraction to find the missing cake.

[Rebecca Tuggle]

This is a good mystery book to read to kids around first grade. It also had a good resource section at the back to teach kids about different mystery solving methods. Definitely a good classroom buy!

[Jaime]

This book might work well for introducing mystery. It has all of the elements needed and is interesting enough to keep the kids' attention during a read aloud.

[Sidney Carnes]

A super cute and adorable book about a duck trying to find a thief. It is a funny book for all ages.

[Mallory Lucas]

This is a fun book. The cake goes missing and the duck decides to find out who did it. It is so cute and has good sense of humor.

[Erin]

Good book for teaching deductive reasoning. Not as funny as it thinks it is, but I think kids would get a kick out of it.

[Jessica]

3.5 stars