Fifth-grade sleuth Cam Jansen and her best friend Eric Shelton, along with Cam's Aunt Molly, are all waiting in line to purchase concert tickets when a figure dressed up as a ghost begins trying to frighten people around them. After the ghost nearly frightens an old man into a heart attack, a surprise discovery is made: while attention was focused elsewhere, an armed robber stole all of the proceeds from the ticket sales. Naturally, Cam immediately jumps into action to track down the thief, aided by her photographic memory and the ever-helpful Eric...

The sixteenth entry in David A. Adler's beginning chapter-book series devoted to Cam and Eric's many crime-solving adventures, Cam Jansen and the Ghostly Mystery follows on very nicely from its immediate predecessor, Cam Jansen and the Triceratops Pops Mystery. In that earlier adventure, Cam foiled a CD thief while out shopping for the new album from her favorite musical group, the Triceratops Pops. Here, it is a Triceratops Pops concert she and Eric are determined to get in to. I think that this is the first time in this series, that Adler employed a crossover theme such as this. Cam Jansen and the Ghostly Mystery is also the first time in the series that a thief uses violence - in this case, brandishing a gun - which is an interesting development. Leaving all that aside, this is sure to appeal to young readers who have enjoyed other Cam Jansen adventures, and it is to them that I would recommend it, as well as to beginning chapter-book readers who enjoy mysteries. ( )

Follow Cam Jansen, a young detective-to-be with a photographic memory put the clues together to solve the mystery of the ghost and the following robbery of the ticket booth, all while waiting in line for tickets to see their favorite band!

Cam is a girl who is known for having a photographic memory. When ever she looks at something she closes her eyes and says 'click'.

This is the ghostly mystery that she solves by remembering things while waiting for tickets to a concert. She helps the police by telling them what she remembers. ( )

Adler, David A. Cam Jansen and the ghostly mystery. (1996). New York: Scholastic, Inc.

While Jennifer “Cam” Jansen, Eric Shelton, and Cam’s Aunt Molly are standing in line in the city to buy tickets to a Triceratops Pops concert, a small person dressed as a ghost playfully darts in and out of the crowd yelling boo at people. The ghost gets out of hand, first scaring a child and then scaring an old man sitting holding papers and magazines. The music hall’s security guards run to stop the ghost and help the old man who has fallen and seems to have had a heart attack. Then Sally, the woman selling tickets to the concert in the ticket booth, runs to the guards to tell them she has been robbed. Cam, who has a photographic memory, clicks her mental camera at the scene. As Eric assists her, she figures out that the ghost and old man were in disguise and put on a distraction so the ghost could rob the music hall. She tells the police, who arrest the ghost and old man. Cam figured out where they live from the address on the “old” man’s magazines. All the while her Aunt Molly follows Cam and Eric around getting confused and saying silly things.

This book is best for lower to middle elementary students. The characters are fairly realistic; Cam and Eric care about the pop concert and they speak to each other as children would speak to each other. Cam is characterized as competent and persistent. Eric is shown to be helpful and wanting to be acknowledged as playing a part in solving the mystery. Aunt Molly is less realistic. She forgets where she is, and often her sentences come out turned around. Her role is to lighten the mood with silliness. The theme is not heavy; the story simply shows the power of observing details. It also shows a girl being smart and leading the way to solving the mystery, while a boy is her assistant. This isn’t a serious realistic fiction book; there are no difficult problems or controversial topics. The scene where the “old” man seems to collapse from a heart attack is handled well. He clutches his heart and falls to the ground with his eyes closed, which is fairly realistic. But instead of portraying a disturbing death scene, Adler has the man conscious and talking nearly right away and the people trying to help fumble around and say silly things, which lightens the mood. Despite its light-hearted tone, the book does have an important theme, that girls are capable and that boys don’t have to be in the spotlight where there is a problem to be solved.

The illustrations are black and white drawings that do what the text doesn’t do, show what the characters look like. ( )

380L,GL 2.1,GRL L,AR 3.4,8 copies