The Clue Of The Left-Handed Envelope: Ready-for-chapters

Third-Grade Detectives #1

by George E. Stanley

WHO SENT AMBER LEE AN ANONYMOUS LETTER?
Everyone loves the new teacher, Mr. Merlin. Mr. Merlin used to be a spy, and he knows all about secret codes and the strange and gross ways the police solve mysteries.
Now there's a mystery in their very own class -- someone sent Amber Lee Johnson an anonymous letter. Noelle and Todd want to solve the mystery before anyone else. But first they have to figure out Mr. Merlin's clues. How can a bunch of envelopes tell them who sent the letter?

Genres: Mystery, Chapter Books, Fiction, Childrens, 2nd Grade, School

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

George Edward Stanley was born in Memphis, Texas on July 15, 1942. He received a bachelor's degree in 1965 and a master's degree in 1967 from Texas Tech University. He earned his Doctor Litterarum in African Linguistics in 1974 from the University of Port Elizabeth in South Africa. He lived all over Europe and Africa, studying and teaching foreign languages, working for the U.S. government, and writing books for young people and adults. He started writing fiction while a Fulbright professor in Chad, Central Africa, where about the only diversion he found available was listening to the BBC on his short wave radio. That led to his writing radio plays for a program called World Service Short Story. Three of his plays were eventually produced. After writing and publishing over 200 short stories in American, British, Irish, and South African magazines and linguistics articles in major international journals, he started writing books. He wrote over 100 fiction and non-fiction books for young people including The Katie Lynn Cookie Company series and the Adam Sharp series. He also wrote under the pseudonyms of M. T. Coffin, Franklin W. Dixon, Laura Lee Hope, Carolyn Keene, Adam Mills, and Stuart Symons. He was a professor of African and Middle-Eastern languages and linguistics in the department of foreign languages at Cameron University. He died from a ruptured aneurysm on February 7, 2011 at the age of 68.

Reviews

[Dolly]

This is the first book in the Third-Grade Detectives series by George E. Stanley and Sal Murdocca.

It's a fascinating story that introduces children to the art and science of cryptography as well as forensics. Our oldest loved this book and immediately engaged her sister in creating messages in hidden code using a simple letter substitution. I love it when the books we read get our girls excited about a new subject and teach them about math, science and other puzzles. We recognize the illustrator's work from his collaboration with Mary Pope Osborne on the Magic Tree House stories.

Overall, I thought this was an interesting story and we will certainly look for more books in this series at our local library.

[Meyaka]

As an attempt to get my third-grader to read more, I selected this mystery series. The book introduces two best friends who have a "new" teacher as their third-grade teacher. They speculate what the teacher did before he came to their school and during the first day of class, the teacher squashes all of the mystery by saying that he used to be a spy. The teacher uses his "spy-skills" to grab the attention of his students and encourages them to critically think to solve mysteries that arise in their school. Surprisingly, I was as into the book as my son was. We had a good time attempting to solve the mystery before we made it to the end of the book. We read the second book, as well and look forward to exploring other books by this author.

[Gavin Graham]

I chose this book to read because I am left-handed and I wanted to figure out what the title meant. Also, I don't like really long books and this makes for a quick read. My favorite character in this book was Noelle. She is very competitive when it came to finding out the answer before her classmates, kind of like me. The plot line was the same throughout the book. At the beginning of every chapter, it picked up from the last. In all honesty though, I would not recommend reading this book unless you like a quick mystery book. One of the things I disliked was that it gave away the mystery almost halfway through the book. Once that happened, the book got boring and I started to lose interest. With that being said, I give this book a 2/5 rating because I lost interest and it wasn't that good overall.

[Effie]

I liked that Noelle didn’t let her disappointment over not having Mrs. Trumble as a teacher get in the way of liking Mr. Merlin. The mystery was about who sent Amber Lee a secret admirer note telling her that she was the smartest girl in the world. With the help of their teacher (who used to be a spy), the main characters investigate - but they focus on only the boys. I also didn’t like the relationship between Amber Lee and Noelle, and it was a little heavy (and very unrealistic) on the police investigation of it all. It sets up the rest of the series well, but I don’t imagine that students who don’t already enjoy reading would be drawn to the series/ genre from this book. Some will enjoy the “secret codes” though!

[Sean Harding]

A detective story with no real crime, but rather a gentle mystery for children of working out who sent another person a nice letter.
The main character feels a bit needy and the rivalry with another student very cliched, but the story itself is fine, and introducing children to puzzles, cryptography, how police, and in particular police scientists solve crime, and things like DNA in a short well executed read is quite a good thing. Far from perfect but with great intentions and a fun read for the youngster.
This was the fourth and final book I read from my Goddaughters library on a weekend visit.
Next time I visit I may return to their library :)

[Chloe (Always Booked)]

3.5 stars. This was a fun book that I would be happy to hand off to my daughters. This is about a girl who gets an anonymous love note and the whole class works together to find out who sent it. They find out that it was licked right to left, a behavior most commonly done by left handed people. The class was not very cooperative in trying to figure it out, instead 2 girls were really wanting to be the ONE that solved it. They also throw in words like stupid and dumb more often than I like, but I feel like without being a Christian fiction, they're always in there. Overall this was a Cam Jansen esque book that was fun enough.

[Margaret Chind]

[Rachel]

Noelle and Todd are in the 3rd grade and have an ex-spy as a teacher! Amber Lee was sent an anonymous letter in the mail, so the class works on figuring out who did it. Police involvement and the science behind solving mysteries is explained- this one is about spit! The story is super short and right to the point.

[Monica]

Cute story about a mystery envelope sent to a classmate in the third grade. The teacher uses this as a way to teach the students about problem solving and looking for clues.

[Katelyn]

short

[Emily]

This was a guided reading book in a fourth grade classroom I subbed in. It was a fun little story.

[Derek]

!

[Adeline]

I loved it because noelle and tod used the clues to find out who sent the note to amber lee!!!!!!

[Kelly Chester]

What a great book

[Elena Peyton]

I thought it was a fun book.

[Brittney]

My 3rd grader enjoyed this quick story.

[Lydia]

I learned a little bit about police officers in the book. I learned that they test the DNA. They have you spit on a q-tip and then they test it with a machine. It helps them solve the mystery.

[Sydney Beth]

Ehh.

[KaitandMaddie]

We enjoyed the puzzles and I guess I’ll be sending coded notes to Maddie now.

[ReadingFrog2102]

8/10
I wanted a taste of my childhood, and this was a refreshing little read. It was good!

[Jessica]

A little mystery for kids who are new to chapter books. I thought it was a little far-fetched, but my daughter, who happens to be in third grade, enjoyed it.

[Conan Tigard]

My daughter read this book to me and quite enjoyed trying to figure out the secret codes in The Clue of the Left-Handed Envelope. The lead character, Noelle, is a completive girl who only wants to beat Amber Lee in solving the mystery. She is really funny and the children that read this story will really like her, even though they may have trouble figuring out how to pronounce her name.

The story is quite light and a fun read and should be enjoyed by all third graders.

Overall, I would recommend The Clue of the Left-Handed Envelope to any young reader that likes a good mystery.

I rated this book an 8 out of 10.

[Danielle Simmons]

I always loved being the detective as a child. And knowing children who are like that now, this book can be a good way to get children to read at a young age. The book keeps you guessing at what the messages mean. Mr. Merlin knows all about being a detective and solving mysteries. Being a third grade detective can lead children to use their imagination and lead them into problem solving and adventure. This story can be a good transitional book that keeps. Hidden guessing at the anonymous notes being sent.

[Carolyn]

This is the first in the Third-Grade Detectives series, but they are all good. I wish there were more. These are "mystery" books with a cryptology twist. Each mystery is solved as the kids decipher different kinds of codes from their teacher. Fun for any kid who has figured out how to write in code.

[Amy Varchetti]

Nothing earth-shattering or fantastic here, but a good solid little beginner mystery. The inclusion of a few coded messages for readers to solve adds some extra fun. Students who like mysteries, science, and puzzles will especially find the book enjoyable. A good choice for reluctant third-grade readers.

[Dawn]

A third grade class works to solve the mystery of who sent a secret admirer letter to a classmate.

If nothing else, this book shows how far beginner chapter books have come. Would not recommend, as there are so many other better mystery series available.

Perhaps in 2000, the police laboratory and DNA were groundbreaking, but not so much anymore.

[Jo Miller]

This is the first book of the series and I can see the fun in reading these books. I like this one because it shows girls how they can get involved and interested in other subjects and step out of their comfort zone and show their brains.

[Haley Rakestraw]

This books is soo like interesting like you cant stop reading it once you start

[Steven]

Pre-read for my daughter. Very easy read and seems to capture a third-grade class mentality fairly well. Not quite on the same level as, say, Encyclopedia Brown, but pretty entertaining.

[Rebecca]

An early chapter book about a class who work together to solve a mystery.