When a famous telescope goes missing at the planetarium, Nancy and her friends must zoom in on the culprit in the third book in an all-new, interactive Nancy Drew chapter book mystery series. Includes space for readers to jot down their own ideas and solutions to the case!
As the newest member of the River Heights Astronomy Club, George brings Nancy and Bess on a special field trip to the city’s high-tech planetarium. There they meet famous astronomer Dr. Winston Arnot, learn about the planets and the stars, and even get to see an awesome planetarium show.
After dinner, they’re supposed to meet on the museum’s roof to gaze at the night sky using the Starship 5000, one of the world’s most powerful telescopes. But when they arrive they discover the famous telescope has been stolen! Can Nancy and her friends solve the case before Dr. Arnot becomes the main suspect?
Carolyn Keene is a writer pen name that was used by many different people- both men and women- over the years. The company that was the creator of the Nancy Drew series, the Stratemeyer Syndicate, hired a variety of writers. For Nancy Drew, the writers used the pseudonym Carolyn Keene to assure anonymity of the creator.
Edna and Harriet Stratemeyer inherited the company from their father Edward Stratemeyer. Edna contributed 10 plot outlines before passing the reins to her sister Harriet. It was Mildred Benson (aka: Mildred A. Wirt), who breathed such a feisty spirit into Nancy's character. Mildred wrote 23 of the original 30 Nancy Drew Mystery Stories®, including the first three. It was her characterization that helped make Nancy an instant hit. The Stratemeyer Syndicate's devotion to the series over the years under the reins of Harriet Stratemeyer Adams helped to keep the series alive and on store shelves for each succeeding generation of girls and boys. In 1959, Harriet, along with several writers, began a 25-year project to revise the earlier Carolyn Keene novels. The Nancy Drew books were condensed, racial stereotypes were removed, and the language was updated. In a few cases, outdated plots were completely rewritten.
Other writers of Nancy Drew volumes include Harriet herself, she wrote most of the series after Mildred quit writing for the Syndicate and in 1959 began a revision of the first 34 texts. The role of the writer of "Carolyn Keene" passed temporarily to Walter Karig who wrote three novels during the Great Depression. Also contributing to Nancy Drew's prolific existence were Leslie McFarlane, James Duncan Lawrence, Nancy Axelrod, Priscilla Doll, Charles Strong, Alma Sasse, Wilhelmina Rankin, George Waller Jr., and Margaret Scherf.
The third Clue Book mystery and it was a really fun one. Especially considering where it took place.
Namely a planetarium, where George is going with her club, and she invited Nancy and Bess as her special guests. Planetariums are just so much fun, though I do wish I could go to the Riverheights Planetarium as it sounds so much cooler than anything I have seen here. With fun expositions with interactive things to do (which is fun for every age), but also with shows and much more.
Add mysteries + planetarium together and you got a book that is instant love to me. Though I have to say I was quite disappointed with the culprit. Oh no, not because I couldn’t figure out who was the culprit, but more that I was disappointed in the lack of responsibility and ethic of that person. Why the hell did you think this was a good idea? I do hope this person has learned a lesson and won’t do this kind of thing again.
The mystery was really fun, it wasn’t clear who it was until they showed footage of the person, and also gave some characteristics, then I knew it just had to be that person. Until then? I had fun puzzling it out, running along with Nancy and her friends, finding every clue, and talking to every person there was.
I was a bit disappointed in the illustrations. They just didn’t make sense at times. Stuff was either bigger or way smaller than one would expect, or would make sense. Nancy’s clue book is so big she can barely hold it, let alone write normally in it.
But all in all, I did enjoy this book a lot and I will be going to read book 4 next. And then it is waiting for the next book to come out.
Having enjoyed other books in the series, and being a family that loves all things space related, I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, it discusses multiple controversial ideas as though they are facts which is not only unnecessary in children’s fiction stories in general, but in this case, it also added absolutely nothing to the plot. If you plan to read this, plan also to have discussions with your child about the content.
The mystery itself wasn’t great either. The story didn’t hold my child’s attention like the other books we have read in the series so overall I would say skip this one.
I adore reading these books with my 5 year old daughter. Each mystery has an expected twist, there is a great amount of new vocabulary introduced and some cute social situations along the way. We get to have conversations about how the characters behave and what feelings that brings up. I would highly recommend this series for young girls!