Edgar Allan's Official Crime Investigation Notebook

November 1, 2010

Gr 3-6-The kids at Wordsmith Elementary School get a lesson on poetry when a thief stages a series of classroom thefts, leaving behind small poems at the scene of the crime. Edgar Allan keeps notes in his crime journal and writes some verses of his own as his classmates compete to solve the mystery. He thinks his home life is strange with his parents both employed as clowns, but when he learns more about the thoughts and personal lives of his classmates through the poetry they write, he gains a deeper understanding of himself and his community. With characters like Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett and a teacher who drinks Tennyson Tea, readers will get thinly veiled lessons describing alliteration, meter, and metaphor. The mystery is a bit slow to unfold and plotlines overlap with Edgar always making observations that cause him to seem way older than a fifth grader. However, readers who stick with it will appreciate the conclusion that itself is a poetic play. The author successfully delivers the theme that a poem is truly a gift. A good springboard for introducing poetry units.-Cheryl Ashton, Amherst Public Library, OH

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