Garbage Juice for Breakfast

The Polka Dot Private Eye #6

by Patricia Reilly Giff, Blanche Sims (Illustrator)

Dawn Bosco can't wait! Her camp counselor, Miss Perry, has just handed out clues for a treasure hunt. Dawn's itching to put on her Polka Dot Private Eye hat and find the hidden treasure. But her friend Lizzie Lee's hot on the trail. too!

Lizzie's afraid of creepy, crawly things. Dawn's scared of horses with big teeth. These kinds of creatures must be faced before anyone can get to the treasure, but nothing will stop detectives Dawn and Lizzie!

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Patricia Reilly Giff was the author of many beloved books for children, including the Kids of the Polk Street School books, the Friends and Amigos books, and the Polka Dot Private Eye books. Several of her novels for older readers have been chosen as ALA-ALSC Notable Books and ALA-YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. They include The Gift of the Pirate Queen; All the Way Home; Water Street; Nory Ryan's Song, a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Honor Book for Fiction; and the Newbery Honor Books Lily's Crossing and Pictures of Hollis Woods. Lily's Crossing was also chosen as a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book.

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dawn is at summer camp and she has a mystery to solve! Is it really a mystery if your camp counselor hands you a list of clues? It's a bit contrived. Mysteries should be come upon us when we least expect them, but I suppose Dawn is eight at the most, which leads to the mystery of, "Who is sending their eight-year-olds to multi-night sleep away camp?" It's a little young, although Dawn and Jill were sent together and that always makes camp easier. Miss Perry, the camp counselor, knows by now that she has two amateur detectives in her cabin and that's probably why she dropped the mystery. Solving a mystery is also something for the kids to do in their buckets of unsupervised time. The '80s! Also, imagine a world so formal that kids called camp counselors by title and surname. Dawn wants to solve the mystery but so does Lizzie Lee, who also has a detective hat. The clues lead Dawn down a deeply wooded horse trail to a crossroads, where Lizzie is also trying to overcome her terror of being an eight-year-old alone in the woods in order to solve a mystery. This happens twice. Dawn is also scared to ride a big horse, which is quite sensible. The important thing is, teamwork makes the dream work and everyone grows. This was alright.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fave as a kid. I read it over and over again.

[Lisa Van Oosterum · Rating 1 out of 5]

We are only halfway through this, and it is quite terrible. It is about a mystery solving summer camp.