The Pumpkin Head Mystery

January 1, 2011
Grades 2-4 The latest adventure in the long-running Boxcar Children series begins when Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny meet their grandfathers friends, the Becketts, at their farm. Plagued by a rash of accidents and bad luck at the same time that an obnoxious developer tries to convince them to sell the farm, the Becketts eagerly accept the childrens offer of help. The simplicity of the writing and the many repetitions of the rapidly accumulating clues will best suit readers new to the mystery genre, and similarly, the shaded pencil drawings will encourage readers new to chapter books.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)

January 1, 2011
Created by Gertrude Chandler Warner. The four Alden children solve two new mysteries. In Amazing, they participate in a television show competing against another family to find clues around historic Philadelphia. In Pumpkin, they discover who is haunting a local farm. As with the other series entries, the characterization is weak and plots are thin. The only appeal is familiarity.

(Copyright 2011 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)