A to Z: The Absent Author

I'm so glad I chose to read A to Z Mysteries: The Absent Author by Ron Roy as my first book in our challenge. As I sat down Friday night with my cup of coffee (no party animal here!) I  reflected back on my elementary years,  I LOVED mysteries books so I knew this would be nostalgic. The way Roy captures your attention is fantasying. I truly did not want to put this book down, I finished it in one night.

The three main character Dink, Ruth, and Josh all who are avid readers planned on going to the local library to see their favorite author. As the anticipated the author at the library, he never showed. So, therefore, they went on an adventure to find the missing author. They followed clues around the town in hopes to find the missing author.

 Dink was quick witted when it came to thinking on his feet. Roy brings you through these young minds thinking process and how they think through these problems within the book. Although this was a children's book, I had to finish this book in one night because i needed to know how it ended. Roy's vocabulary made it very suspenseful. He made you think through your thoughts on what you thought was going to happen. He did not give many clues on what was going to happen at the end of the book; which, I thought made it just as interesting.

Roy had me questioning all throughout the book. Although I understand this is a mystery book, I was disappointed that the clues he gave through the book did not make me find the solution at the end of the book. I could have not even guessed the ending because it was off the wall. Was it intended that way? I would have liked the clues through the book to match the end outcome. Another question I had was if there was a lesson to this book. Which pondering on that thought, I came to a few ideas. The first was that the theme of the book could possibly be how to predict an outcome. Another idea that it could be was how to problem solve with the few resources given to you.

Since we are talking about interactive read aloud's in class I was thinking what strategy this book could be taught with. I came to the conclusion that it would be good at teaching how to infer or predict. After reading each chapter in class, you could have your students write in a journal what they think will happen next, share with the class, and when the next chapter is read we could talk about if what they inferred was correct or not.

I would love to read another Ron Roy book for my book challenge. I would want to see if there is another one of his books that I would like better. Overall, I would read this to my future students because it is about kids who love to read (Whoop Whoop!!) and that is the kind of example I want to instill in my future students.