The Case of the Secret Valentine

Jigsaw Jones Mystery #3

by James Preller, John Speirs (Illustrator), R.W. Alley (Cover Illustrator)

Someone is secretly sending Jigsaw Valentines. When Jigsaw thinks about each valentine as a clue, the case starts to come together. It's a red-hot mystery for Jigsaw and Mila, the best detectives in the second grade.

Jigsaw puzzles are like mysteries - you've got to look at all the pieces to solve the case.

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

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

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

[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.

[Kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emmy's new favorite series. I like the realistic mysteries solved, the attitudes involved, and the tone of the book. The gist of a quote that got me, "What I didn't like about this mystery is that it was making me suspicious of everyone- X, Y, Z. These were all good people, not crooks, and I needed to solve this mystery so I could start seeing the world the way it actually is again." I loved Encyclopedia Brown as a kid, but some of those kids were just labeled mean. The books I've flipped through so far are more kind and nuanced, a nice change.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luisa: my favorite part was chapter 10, cuz Jigsaw solves the case.

[Dolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book in the Jigsaw Jones series of mysteries by James Preller. Our youngest really likes them; she says they remind her of the Nate the Great stories, which she also loves.

This story was fairly simple and straightforward, but we liked the plot. Our girls really got into the mystery of the secret admirer and we talked about the potential suspects as well as the spelling errors. We especially liked solving the coded message at the end and I was impressed that our girls didn't need to write it down to figure it out.

I like the fact that Jigsaw and Mila demonstrate using logic and reasoning to help figure out whodunit. They were a bit mean to the culprit, but didn't play their trick for too long. It was a short, fun story to read aloud and we enjoyed reading it together, even though Valentine's Day was last month.

[Kristie · Rating 3 out of 5]

sweet. i read this for thirty minutes. it's such an easy easy easy read. but well, it's sweet. i'd love this if i'm on third grade. but well... i like it anyway.
Jigsaw got a secret admirer! yay!
and it's probably someone from his class. double yay!
well it ruined his valentine week. so he and Mila consider it a case and work on it.

[Hawkeye · Rating 2 out of 5]

this book is about a kid who solves mysterys. he gets a valentines card without a name on it. he tries to find out who it is.

[Lolly · Rating 2 out of 5]

it was a lot to easy

[Aubrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

So it was about Jigsaw Jones got this secret admirer card and it was actually from this boy named Bobby.

[Deborah Harris]

AR Quiz No. 34922 EN Fiction
Accelerated Reader Quiz Information IL: LG - BL: 2.9 - AR Pts: 1.0
Accelerated Reader Quiz Type Information AR Quiz Types: RP, VP

[Elaine Hebert · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like this book because I like mysteries.