The Quicksand Question

A to Z Mysteries #17

by Ron Roy, John Steven Gurney

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!   Q is for Quicksand . . . Quack, quack—ducks crossing! Green Lawn is raising funds for a special bridge to keep ducks safe when they cross River Road. But then the money is stolen! Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are on a quest to get it back. Not even quicksand can stop them. . . .

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

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

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

[Katt Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Money meant for a duck bridge (I kid you not) is stolen in this mystery that starts with a fire in a distant field and unwinds with a lot of action (and a lot of snacks) taking you through town all the way into the quicksand by the river.

This is a fun series with twisty mysteries that are enjoyable to read. Our three detectives are easy to relate to, as are the people in this town. What I like best, is that the adults aren't idiots, but also how they listen to what the kids have to say. It's a nice blend that makes for a good mystery for kids (and adults) to enjoy.

[Leslie Savisky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I enjoy these books as much as my seven-year-old daughter, who has just recently become interested in chapter books. We read this over the course of a few days, and I was just as curious to find out whodoneit as she was!
Ron Roy's A to Z Mysteries are fun and easy to read for young people, but not boring for us adults. Highly recommend, especially for parents of kids who are transitioning from picture books / easier reads to chapter books.

[Bookwiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose are the three main characters in the book and are kind of like kid dectives and in the book "The Quicksand Question" the kids go on a wid goose chase to find the missing money which ends up being at the bottom of a lake/large pile of quicksand which two of the kids gets stuck in. if you would like to know how the mystery ends read "The Quicksand Question" might I add it is not the best book in the series but it is ok just read it and see what you think.

[Blue · Rating 2 out of 5]

Huh. Not terrible.

After P I was ready to give up on the series, and would have except the audio was O-R all as one "book" and at 2.5 hours at 2x speed it seemed like to much bother to stop so I would just use it to pad my reading challenge. Not good enough to give S-V a go though. Well, the book might even have been okay, but it is hard to tell after how awful O and P were, with poor books before them.

[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.

[Julianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought The Quicksand Question was another nice addition to the A-Z Mysteries series. The storyline about the town of Green Lawn building a bridge so that the ducks could safely cross the road was cute, and the rescue of Dink and Josh from the quicksand added a little suspense and excitement. Overall, another fun read in this series.

[Lisadunbar22 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked at the end when the ducks peacefully crossed over the bridge. It was cool when the kids got to sleep in Josh's barn. It was funny when the twins stole the money and became rich! Review written by Evan & Hailey.

[Rachelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dink, Josh and Ruth Rose are counting their money they wish to contribute to the building of a bridge for ducks over River Road. Josh's dog is disturbed and they smell smoke. Firetrucks come to put out the fire. When they go to the firehouse to put money into the duck bank being used for the collection and find it was stolen.

The children manage to solve the mystery thanks to a clue they received from Mr. Pocket. You'll have to read the book to find out what happened.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Josh, Dink and Ruth Rose help solve the mystery of the stolen "Duck Bank".
Green Lawn is collecting money for a duck bridge so the ducks can safely cross the road. They place a large plastic "Duck Bank" at the firehouse for everyone to donate money. During a fire late at night, and while the firefighters are out, the bank is stolen. The three junior detectives set out to find the thief with the clues left behind. Josh and Dink get stuck in quicksand but find a clue. We love these books.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

my kids like these

This one was a little different than the others so you knew who did it the whole time but didn’t know where the quicksand came from. There are a lot of crooks in such a small town! I guess that’s the fun though. To be able to catch small time criminals and still keep the kids safe.

This series is fun and easy for my 7yo to read as she gets more into books and stories.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun read for young readers. Full of adventure, mystery and fun characters! The illustrations in each chapter were a good addition. Classroom library quality mystery. The author has plenty of other series, but this is the first one I’ve read. Looking forward to reading others and suggesting it to students.

[Katie Merkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Quicksand Question” was another enjoyable mystery with Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose. I really enjoy not just this book, but this series because the plots are consistently good, both the kids and adults are intelligent, and there are good child-authority relationships. I recommend this series for 1st-3rd graders.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

The town of Green Lawn has been donating money to build a duck bridge to keep the ducks safe and drivers from hitting them as they cross the road. Someone has stolen the money, and Dink, Josh, and Ruth Rose try and locate the thief. Their search for clues lead them into more than they bargained for.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you, Dink Duncan, Josh Pinto, Ruth Rose Hathaway, and Ron Roy, for the childhood memories. These books helped me to become a lifelong reader and lover of mysteries. Did anyone else fear quicksand as a small child, only to grow up and realize that it is not as much of a problem in your life as you thought it would be?

[Joyce T. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another cute mystery... Yay for ducks!

-- 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]

Great mystery as usual and I loved learning about quicksand. Very interesting!

[Tennyson McClelland · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was a good book

[Ishaan]

nice!

[Arnis · Rating 3 out of 5]

https://poseidons99.wordpress.com/202...

[aem · Rating 3 out of 5]

The monies collected for a duck bridge have been stolen. Can Dink, Ruth Rose and Josh solve the mystery mystery and help recover the funds?

[Elina · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a cool book. But why would they hide the Jeep in quicksand. And if he stole the duck Bank. Usually don't the thieves keep it to their selves why hide it. And why did he want the duck bank when he was going to bury it in quicksand. It would be better to use it then to keep it in quicksand. Otherwise he just losed his energy for stealing.

[Kristen N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not the best of the A to Z Mysteries but good overall.

[Jen Uhl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great audiobook that the whole family enjoyed in the car to the beach!

[Kari Olson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read with my kid. Cute book!

[Shannon]

another day, another slay

[Aryanna Tunstall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our three detectives won’t sleep until those ducks are safe.

[Shelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

When my reading age niece comes over she loves to read these.

[Rick Christiansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think i have a mild quicksand phobia

[Deepthi Herga · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 7 - year old has finished the entire set of the A to Z mysteries (including all the super editions). I started reading them because I wanted to find out how good these mysteries are and after I started, I finished the entire set myself. This will be a common review for all the books in the set (so please forgive me if you see this repeated under another book).

First of all, the mystery part of the book is fairly simple for an adult, but I can see how it can keep a kid engrossed. The characters are playful, around the same age as my kid now, so are very relatable. Yes, there are some characteristics which can be a little irritating, but they didn't really bother me too much as to take away from the stories. The other con is that these little kids are left unmonitored in many of their adventures (I am not a helicopter parent, but it felt a little strange, especially when they are out of the country altogether).

That being said, now what I loved about the stories -

1) Most of the stories are based in different cities, and sometimes different countries, so the travel perspective is amazing. We, as a family, love to travel and every time the kids in the books traveled somewhere it made the story more exciting to me (as well as my kid). My kid had comments on how they went to Key West and later Washington D.C "just like us".

2) There are strong characters of both genders, the villains are of different genders as well, so the stereotyping is considerably less (there was a female pilot in one of the books that stood out to me) and I love it that girls reading the books have some good role models. I would always like more female strong characters shown ofcourse :).

I'm sure my kids will be enjoying many more of the author's books in the future :)

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 3 out of 5]

My love of reading started when i was young, and it gives me immense pleasure to provide books to Spread the Word Nevada, an organization that passes them on to children in the community. They are a terrific organization supporting an important cause. If your local I encourage you to check them out. For those living further a field, look in your own community, their may already be a similar program in place. And if not, you can always help start one.

http://spreadthewordnevada.org/

Myself, I go out on the weekends and
shop thrift store and bulk book lots to rescue books and donate them. Sometimes I'll find a book I remember reading when I was young and will read it again before passing it on.

I don't rate these books using my normal scale, instead I give most of them three stars. This isn't a Criticism of the book, simply my way of rating them as good for children.