The Falcon's Feathers

A to Z Mysteries #6

by Ron Roy, John Steven Gurney (Illustrator)

Help Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose solve mysteries from A to Z!   Kids love collecting the entire alphabet and super editions! With over 8 million copies in print, the A to Z Mysteries® have been hooking chapter book readers on mysteries and reading for years. Now this classic kid favorite is back with a bright new look!   F is for Falcon . . . Find those falcons! After Josh discovers a falcons’ nest, he checks on the young birds every day. But when he tries to show Dink and Ruth Rose, the nest is empty! Could someone have taken the baby falcons? Soar into the mystery with Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose!

Genres: Mystery, Childrens, Fiction, Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Audiobook, 2nd Grade

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

Ron Roy has been writing books for children since 1974. He is the author of dozens of books, including the popular A to Z Mysteries®, Calendar Mysteries, and Capital Mysteries. When not working on a new book, Ron likes to teach tricks to his dog Pal, play poker with friends, travel, and read thrilling mystery books.

Reviews

[Swati Tanu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ha! The first time my 5-year-old nephew guesses the mystery and.....guessed wrong! Ok, I admit even I was wrong this time. Surprisingly, the 7-year-old guessed it right. And he can't stop laughing at us. :|

Grab your copy here.

[Tamra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, as an adult, this series is so predictable. BUT, they're fun, fast reads without little "extras" to slow you down.

This one had me on the edge of my seat. I even skipped ahead to find out who the bad guy was! Pretty sad that I couldn't wait another 15 minutes, I know. Since I'm like 20 years older than Roy's target audience.

[Cora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Per my first graders: It was fun because they saved the falcons. It was cool because they solved the mystery. It was happy because it had a good ending.

[Lou Oliver · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The A to Z Mysteries is almost the best book series I have ever read.

The book is about how the three main characters—Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose—go on an adventure to solve a mystery, of course.

This was one of my favorite books in the A to Z Mysteries series. It has a lot of teamwork, friendship, and, most of all, care for each other."

[Kat V · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not particularly amazing but still solid and harder to solve than the one before. 3.2 stars

[Blue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Josh finally gets some character! He still isn't differentiated from Dink by more than a hobby but still, it is something.

Envelope didn't make me pause or cringe from stilted replies as it was with Dungeon, although it was a lesser story. For the most part this book also seemed smoother but there was a VERY off comment/reply from the Vet. I suppose it could be the narrator, even partially, but I am pretty sure it was the writing itself.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book but others in this series are better

[⚡️Nabiha⚡️ · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s very interesting for me and I like it a lot.

[Robert · Rating 2 out of 5]

I needed a "simpler" book for one of my reading groups. Simple this is. I had never read an A to Z Mystery before. This isn't getting me to want to rush out for another.

A falcon is missing. The children solve the mystery. No surprise there. We are to believe that the DEP officer's co-worker would have just given out an employee's address to a bunch of children. Unbelievable!

Further, once the children were caught nothing further happened. And what kind of role models are these children with their breaking and entering?

I guess I can play up the mystery and the red herring. That'll keep the students interested. For me, once we complete this, I will keep it on the shelf.

Example of onomatopoeia on p.21
****
Interesting review I wrote above. I just finished reading this with a new group of children. They quite enjoyed the story. I taught it from the point of being a detective and needing to figure out who did it. I didn't recall that I had blasted this one so harshly before.

It's not a great book, but it is okay. I like that lots of clues make it seem like one person did it, but in the end someone else did the deed.

[Hina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh, Dink, and Ruth Rose are trying to solve the mystery in this suspenseful mystery book. They find a falcon and find a huge mystery behind it. They find a nest in the forest with young falcons in them, which is very rare. But then, the next day, it's gone. Then they find a feather with a wing clipped, and their sure there's something wrong. So they seek out to go and find out what it is. In the end, they found out the real reason of why this was happening to the falcons. After Josh, Ruth Rose, and Dink found out the real reason of why this was happening, they were both shocked and surprised because neither of them expected it to be something like that to have happened.

[Talia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josh finds a nest of baby falcons, but is dismayed to find them gone one day. When they find a baby falcon out of its nest with wings clipped and tag marking it as property, they suspect illegal falcon stealing! But who is doing it?????

This story was pretty cool, it was neat to have Josh so compassionate about the animals (and I figured out whodunit before the story ended!). Also, I love it when the kids make wrong guesses as to solve the mystery, makes it more “believable” than having the kids be right all the time.

[Trisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ha! The first time my youngest guesses the mystery and.....guessed wrong! She was totally surprised!

So much fun! Love these audio books!!

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this with my students and while the culprit wasn't who they thought, it wasn't anything spectacular. Nice book with a great message about endangered animals but I wasn't blown away by it

[Charlie Lebby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Asa’s review (age 4):

How many stars should this get?
-very enthusiastic 5

What was your favorite part?
-when Josh, Dink, and Ruth Rose found out who took the falcons

What was your least favorite part?
-when Grace Lockwood gave the kids a stern look out the window 😂

Any other thoughts?
-do you think Kurt got disqualified?
What do you mean?
-do you think he got like fired from his job?



My review:

Have such good memories reading these as a kid! Very sweet full circle moment reading this with my daughter. We read it in 2 sittings- funny to think how long they felt as a kid. She was absolutely HOOKED. She couldn’t sleep last night and kept coming into my room to tell me she thought Grace Lockwood was the one who stole the birds 😂 She also asked if we could read it again after we finished it. Can’t wait to read more from this series!

[Annie Flanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is number 6 of a series of books called 'A to Z Mysteries.' The protagonists are 3 children - Dink - Josh and Ruth Ruse.

In this book Josh finds a nest of peregrine falcons. When he takes Dink and Ruth Rose to visit the nest they find that all the birds are gone - the two parents and the babies. But one baby shows up - hidden in the bushes.

They report the missing birds to the Department of Environmental Protection and then take the baby falcon to the vet. But the baby falcon gets stolen from the vet's office and the three children are on search to find it.

I really liked the illustrations - done by John Steven Gurney - especially the detailed map of Green Lawn at the beginning of the book.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It must be a dilemma for kids' mystery authors - how much do the kids break the rules or even do something that's technically illegal to solve a mystery? In this mystery, an employee tell three kids where to find her co-worker at his house while he's eating lunch. Not too likely in this day and age, or possibly ever. But later the kids trespass (and admit as much) and as a mom I cringe a little but I'm sure it's easier to write mysteries without avoiding such a thing.

This mystery was fine, with a few suspects to consider. I do think this series seems a bit dated, but not horribly so and there aren't that many options out there.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4.5 stars due to disagreement between the children**

My six-year-old daughter says:
It's a pretty good mystery because it's like very mysterious.

My four-year-old son says:
The feathers were in the nest but the birds weren't and that's weird. I liked it so much so ALL STARS!!!

Mom says:
WHO IS WATCHING THESE CHILDREN??? WHERE ARE THEIR PARENTS??? If I was one of the moms or officers, these mysteries would be much less interesting reads for kids.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read these books when I was a kid and greatly enjoyed them, figured I'd give them a second read for kicks.

I certainly recommend any young mysteries fan devote time to this series, it's certainly a grand adventure for a young mind, the imagery of Ron Roy's words and his settings and unique character descriptions and personalities really help kids imagine a whole movie in their heads as they read each exciting page.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josh finds a nest of baby falcons and goes back to see them for a few days before he decides to show Dink and Ruth Rose. But when they make it to the nest, the baby falcons are gone. They then start to investigate what happened to the baby falcons and follow clues. This book wasn't as predictable as the others, there were more people to suspect in this book. We enjoyed reading it as a family and figuring out who the culprit was.

[Tara Strosnider · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh discovers a nest of young falcons in the forest, 
he, Dink, and Ruth Rose start visiting every day. Until the morning they find
it empty! Then the kids discover a wounded falcon with its wing feathers clipped, and they know someone's up to no good.
Can they figure it out before it's too late for the falcons? Read to find out.

This one had me on the edge of my seat.

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story because Josh has started to develop as a character. Josh pulls us into this mystery because of his hobbies - birdwatching and illustrating. When an entire nest of falcons vanishes, Josh, Dink, and Ruth Rose begin an investigation. It’s an engaging mystery with a lot of suspects and false leads.

[Nam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one. Ruth Rose, Josh, and Dink have to work hard to save their local endangered animal, the peregrine falcon. At first, my suspicions were very wrong, but I solved the mystery first. Good conclusion and a nice twist at the end.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Josh discovers a nest of baby peregrine falcons, and for the next few days, he, Dink, and Ruth Rose watch them. When the falcons suddenly disappear from their nest, Josh suspects that someone has stolen them, and this puts the trio on the trail to find out who.

[Austin Ajit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Josh has been observing a peregrine falcon family ,suddenly it got missing and they called the wildlife center,but they found a baby falcon in the grass and took it to the vet .Read it for finding what happened to the falcons

[Joyce T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

-- This is a series review. --

I love this series. The kids are solving real mysteries around their neighborhood (as opposed to their siblings), and they find out things that the adults couldn't.

-- End series review --

[Tara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, short mystery that talks about environmental protection.

[Shelly Weidner · Rating 3 out of 5]

My daughter was very into this book and trying to figure out 'who did it'. We had to read extra chapters at night to get to the end.

[Kira Nerys · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the environmental bent! Not sure there's much else to distinguish it from the rest of the series. Always fun to re-read one of these.

[Galion Public Library Teens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review by A.H. : "I like the beginning when the mystery begins."

[Stephanie Jones · Rating 1 out of 5]

Overall, I think this is an interesting series. The kids are given clues that are appropiate for their ability to solve but the kids constantly put themselves at risk and I'm not sure why no one is calling them out on it. I am trying to debate with myself whether I like this series or not. This feels very unsafe and I am constantly telling my child that you must never invite someone you don't know into the house.