In my opinion, this book was a good book for multiple reasons. The characters were believable because the two twins in the book were solving a mystery that was age appropriate for them. Their friend, who happened to be a princess, is kidnapped and with the clues they gather it is easy for them to figure out what had really happened to her, especially on a 3rd and 4th grade level.
I liked how the author was expanding the readers knowledge of new vocabulary words that 3rd or 4th graders may not be familiar with yet. In the book, the two detectives were discussing other characters in the book who may have "motive". After using the word "motive", the author then explains the word by saying, " It's a person's reasoning for committing a crime" (Pg. 45). By providing a definition for the new word the author is providing the reader with a better understanding of the word and now the reader has schema (meaning) of that new word.
The author also does a good job of pushing the reader to think about different perspectives within the story along with solving difficult tasks at hand. Through critical thinking the reader uses context clues to figure out meaning within the chapters which will then help him/her solve the mystery in the book. The "Who, what, when, where and why" questioning, pushes readers to ask questions and make connections through answering those questions. In this book the readers 5 W questions, who kidnapped the princess, what were his/her reasons, when was she kidnapped, where was she kidnapped and why did they kidnap her, will lead the reader to discoveries within the text. By doing this, the reader can then come to a conclusion about the story thus solving the mystery at hand.
The writing was very engaging and organized which made each chapter easy to follow and understand. Without the organization and flow of the writing it would be hard for the reader to piece different clues within the chapters together to get to a conclusion about the story.
The big idea of this story was, even if you feel as if you are stuck when trying to figure out a task at hand, keep striving and eventually you will find the correct answer as to what you are looking for. The two detectives in the story hit a dead end when it came to solving their mystery but yet they started over and found new approaches to come to a conclusion about their mystery. ( )