The Riddle Of The Stolen Sand

Third-Grade Detectives #5

by George E. Stanley

A Case That's Tougher To Crack Than An Oyster Shell

Everybody loves Mr. Roper. He gives kids free candy or ice cream when their parents shop at his grocery store. So when he's accused of selling stolen oysters, Mr. Merlin's Third-Grade Detectives don't believe it. But can they prove it?

Mr. Merlin's secret codes have the Detectives looking for clues at the beach, at rival oyster farms, and even in a garbage truck -- yuck! It turns out pearls aren't the only valuable thing you can get from oysters -- you can also get evidence to help solve a baffling mystery!

Genres: Mystery, Chapter Books, Childrens

64 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2003

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

[Glen]

There's a dispute among oyster sellers, and some kids try to find out who is right. They use some scientific analysis.

Fun, hopefully get some kids interested in science.

[Kelly Triplett]

Nice series that not only encourages reading, but science as well. These would be good as a class read along or even for small reading group time.

[Mari]

clean, readable, but I found it dull

[Bryan]

The reading level is very basic, so the book was below my daughter's ability, but we both enjoyed the way it encourages scientific problem-solving.

[Dolly]

This is the fifth book in the Third-Grade Detectives series by George E. Stanley and Sal Murdocca. Our library didn't have the second or fifth book in the series, so I purchased them for our daughter to read and donate. I normally prefer to read them in order, but in this case, it doesn't really matter much. Will make sure we catch up with books three and four...

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

[Manoj Seema]

good book

[Hillvan]

430L

[AS]

This is really neat : ) The kids figure out a mystery and there’s some science involved along the way. Perfect for kids who are just starting to enjoy chapter books.

[Shannon Rickert]

loved itttt wished we had the whole series, i hvae two more on to those!!