The Case of the Glow-in-the-Dark Ghost

Jigsaw Jones Mystery #24

by James Preller, Jamie Smith (Illustrator), R.W. Alley (Illustrator)

Looking for intriguing mysteries, great friendship stories, and quality early chapter books for beginning readers? Look no Jigsaw & Mila are the BEST detectives on the market!

Missing hamsters, lost coins, haunted houses...Jigsaw Jones has seen it all before. With his top-secret detective journal, eye for detail, and ace partner Mila, Jigsaw is always ready to take on a new case.

Unless it means staying after school! Jigsaw and Mila's new case has them searching school buses, spying on classmates, and dusting for fingerprints in the school cafeteria. Yuck! Will the hunt for clues help them solve this back-to-school mystery? Or just land them in detention?

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Chapter Books, Monsters

80 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2004

About the author

James Preller (born 1961) is the children's book author of the Jigsaw Jones Mysteries, which are published by Scholastic Corporation. He grew up in Wantagh, New York and went to college in Oneonta, New York. After graduating from college in 1983, James Preller was employed as a waiter for one year before being hired as a copywriter by Scholastic Corporation, where he was introduced (through their books) to many noatable children's authors. This inspired James Preller to try writing his own books. James Preller published his first book, entitled MAXX TRAX: Avalanche Rescue, in 1986. Since that time, James Preller has written a variety of books, and has written under a number of pen names, including Mitzy Kafka, James Patrick, and Izzy Bonkers. James Preller lives in Delmar, New York with his wife Lisa and their three children.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/jamesp...

Reviews

[Chak · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of cultural references in Jigsaw Jones books. The kids usually won't pick up on them, but many parents will. Scooby Doo was mentioned briefly in this book, but there were more subtle Scooby Doo references all over the place. There were slightly (and I mean ever-so-slight) scary parts, but overall, a good book.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the seventh book in the Jigsaw Jones series of mysteries by James Preller. The stories are short and entertaining, perfect for young elementary school-age children just starting to get into chapter books.

There are so many cultural references in this story, especially about Scooby-Doo. In fact, our girls insisted that every time I saw the name Cassandra, I had to replace it with Velma instead. And for some strange reason, I got a hankering for Cap'n Crunch cereal...

This story was fairly simple and straightforward, but we liked the plot and the Halloween theme. We just had to listen to Monster Mash on YouTube after we finished this book. It was a fun story to read aloud and we enjoyed reading it together.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Cassandra, one of his schoolmates, claims to have seen a ghost on the school grounds, it's up to Jigsaw Jones and his detective partner, Mila Yeh, to solve the mystery. As is always the case with stories in this reliable series for young readers, there are solid clues and red herrings and various story lines that don't seem to fit at first until the end when they do. I love how well crafted the story is, and even though I could see the ending coming miles away, I still enjoyed it. This is a fast, engaging read, supported with interesting illustrations, and abundant references to popular culture. Who doesn't remember "The Monster Mash" from years ago? I'm so pleased to see this series reissued with a fresh new look to entice reluctant readers.

[Kate Puleo Unger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Christopher’s reading group has been reading Jigsaw Jones. He had to read 9 chapters of this book in one weekend to catch up, and it was a bit of a struggle. Not because of the book, but because reading is akin to torture for him. He’s so good at it, but he hates it. After each chapter he had to write a small reflection: character, problem, question, etc. Because of that I ended up skimming most of the book myself. It was a fairly decent mystery story with the kids trying to determine whether a ghost was really being seen every Tuesday night. The chapters were nice and short, so that was good.

https://momsradius.com/2018/02/juveni...

[Shelby Olszewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jigsaw Jones is a detective who solves mysteries with his partner and best friend Mila Yeh. One October day, a girl named Cassandra come to Mila and asked to talk to her and Jigsaw about a mystery. She came to their tree house and told them how she has seen ghost in their school at night. Jigsaw does not believe in ghost and does not think this is real, but Mila thinks that they should do a little work on the case. The next day on the way to school they asked all the kids on the bus if they have seen or heard anything about a ghost in their school. All of the other kids said they had never actually seen a ghost but they were all sure the story was true. Then Ralphie Jordan said, “Earl Bartholomew told me that he saw a ghost the other day. He was riding his bike past the school at night and he said he heard a scream.” Earl is an eighth-grader who lived across the street from Ralphie. That day at school Jigsaw and Mila’s teacher read them a scary story, turning off all of the lights. Once she was done reading the story she asked one of the students to shut the curtains and all of a sudden they all saw glow in the dark footprints all around the classroom. After school that day Mila went to find Ralphie to talk to him about the dancing ghost. Ralphie told her that what he said was all true, except the part about hearing a scream at the end. Since tomorrow was Tuesday Jigsaw asked his older brother if he got a phone call the next night from Cassandra saying she could see the ghost, he would drive him over to the school. Sure enough Jigsaw got a phone call the next night and his brother took him over to the school. While sitting out in the car Jigsaw and his brother saw the ghost. His brother told him to get out and go get a closer look at the window. A few seconds later Jigsaw heard someone opening the front door of the school, he quickly ducked behind a tree. Out came Mr. Copabianco their school janitor. The next day Jigsaw and Mila went straight to Mr. Copabianco’s office to find out he has been the mystery ghost the past few weeks, he is working on the costumes and special effects for the Halloween show at the Steamer 10 Theater.

[Twyla · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite character was jigsaw. There was no worst character. My favorite part was when the mystery was solved. There was no worst part. Auryn 10 years old , 2014