The Spotlight Clubbers create stone rubbings of Civil War–era tombstones for a summer school class on the Civil War. Cindy has chosen the tombstone of Serafina Winslow, who died in 1862. Then, at the neighborhood yard sale, Cindy locates a box of interesting-looking old photos and frames and miscellaneous papers. When she takes it home with her, she discovers Serafina Winslow's journal inside! Things get even more mysterious when Cindy finds a sketch of her neighbor's missing locket in the journal. What does the long-deceased Serafina Winslow have to do with the recent disappearance of the locket? Leave it to the Spotlight Club to dig up the answers!
1 of 1 copy available
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Creators
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Series
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Publisher
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Release date
April 30, 2013 -
Formats
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781480424593
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781480424593
- File size: 4098 KB
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Languages
- English
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Levels
- ATOS Level: 4.3
- Lexile® Measure: 580
- Interest Level: K-3(LG)
- Text Difficulty: 2-3
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Reviews
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January 15, 2013
After a long hiatus, the Spotlight Club Mysteries return with a new posthumous entry and a paperback reprint of another. Blond siblings Cindy and Jay, of indeterminate age, and their neighbor Dexter, distinct mainly because he wears glasses, solve mysteries together in a fictional town so mild it could be a Beverly Cleary setting. However, whereas the physical safety of Klickitat Street exists to highlight emotional and developmental depth, Parry and Pierce's town--Kenoska--houses whodunits (or what-is-its) that characters easily glide through, enthusiastic but free from disputes or sweat. In this world, adult strangers are no actual threat, and a child can pick up prescription medication. (In contrast, kid-made gravestone rubbings sell for $15 apiece. Really?) The kids bike around town between home and the cemetery, earning money to save a museum and forging connections among a wrought-iron bench, a missing locket, feuding adult sisters and a long-dead artist. Answers are too thin, results too perfect. A second title, publishing simultaneously, Mystery of the Bewitched Bookmobile, offers a bit more meat and interest--climbing into a bookmobile in the dark; decoding a painted sign--but feels even more dated due to old-fashioned telephone numbers and a librarian (Cindy's role model) who wants nothing more than to be asked on a date. White bread. Consider Jane O'Connor's Nancy Clancy, Super Sleuth (2012) instead. (Mystery. 7-10)COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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July 1, 2013
Cindy, Jay, and Dexter, the Spotlighters, search for a missing locket. Once they find it, they discover the locket is the key to a mystery surrounding a famous artist and his deceased daughter, Serafina. The story moves along at a quick pace, but that doesn't compensate for the repetitive dialogue and two-dimensional characters. Some of the black-and-white illustrations look unfinished.(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)
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