Third-Grade Detectives #1-2: The Clue of the Left-Handed Envelope & The Puzzle of the Pretty Pink Handkerchief

by George E. Stanley

Mr. Merlin's Third Graders are known as the Third Grade Detectives -- with some hints from secret code clues and help from Mr. Merlin's friend, the police scientist Dr. Smiley, they help solve cases. This two-in-one flip book contains the full text and illustrations for the first two Third Grade Detectives books. In their first case, The Clue of the Left-Handed Envelope, the Detectives find out who has been sending Amber Lee anonymous letters. And in their next case, a dirty handkerchief provides a clue to who's been trespassing in Todd's tree house.

Genres: Fiction, Mystery, School, Chapter Books, Childrens

144 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2004

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

[Deacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a great book, and I really like 'two books for the price of one' idea. The book was really fun and easy to read, the secret code clues are really fun to solve, and both books are really interesting. 📕📗

[Lisa]

Book #1: pg 4 an admirer (3rd grade), eye rolling between students; pg 5 “I already know how to think,” Leon said. “I don’t like to do it too much.”; pg 7 “Amber Lee gave Noelle a dirty look.”; pg 11 eye rolling, pg 17 3rd grade students speculating that a female police scientist visiting the classroom is a couple with their male teacher; stopped reading on page 17.

Book #2 pg 3 “He knew he couldn’t tell his mother, though. She would take him to the doctor for sure. Well, he’d just pretend that he could understand everything his mother said.”; pg 4, 8 gross description of getting earwax out of ear; pg 9 saying another student has “plenty of empty space” in their head. Stopped reading on page 9.

[Christie Stoneback · Rating 5 out of 5]

According to Lennon, age 7….
This book was a nice book. I had to read it because iLead said I had to. It was a good book BUT I DON’t LIKE TO READ FICTION BOOKS. I liked this one because they find stuff that is lost. Mr Merlin is a great teacher. It was a great book and another book I had to read in my school year was Nate the Great. But I didn’t know it was FICTION which you know I don’t like.

Bye bye talk to you soon.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

AR 3.5

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not totally what I was expecting. The codes were fun but some of the kids were mean to each other for no reason. No moral lessons and solves the mysteries with police equipment unavailable to kids.

[sillynichegirl sy · Rating 3 out of 5]

good book I guess.

[Darlene · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these books with my daughters.

It is a cute series called The Third-Grade Detectives. Their teacher is a former spy, and he gives the students code clues to help them solve mysteries. My elder daughter and I stop and work on the code and try to figure it out before moving forward in the book. Don't worry if you cannot figure out the code because the teacher will give you a clue in the following chapter to help you solve it!

I actually give this series 3.5 stars rather than the 3 stars that are shown since we cannot award half stars in the rating.

We enjoy the series and plan to read more!

[Margaret Chind]

[Victoria Mars · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very short book good for young readers. The story line is simple and has no side stories. Very age appropriate vocabulary and pictures. Children wil enjoy reading about the classroom mystery and the new teacher now ex-spy. They may even be interested in picking up other books from the series.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about the mystery of the envelope which is written by a left handed .

[Natalie Wilkinson]

2nd lit, SL

[Hillvan]

370L and 410L

[Coco and Snow · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok not really exciting