A young girl who solves mysteries? Count us in! We have read a few books in the Cam Jansen mystery series that center on a 5th grade girl nicknamed Cam and her best friend Eric and I am happy to keep J reading them.
Here is what J told me a few weeks ago when I asked her about the series:
“Cam Jansen had a really really good memory. She said click and could remember anything. People called her the camera and then that got shortened to Cam. I don’t remember her real name.”
Well, her real name is Jennifer and she has a photographic memory. She goes around with her best friend, Eric, and when strange things happen, she commits them to memory. She later recalls these things to help solve a mystery.
Cam is a great character. She is smart, observant and confident. These are great for early chapter readers because the books are short, use language that is easily accessible and they are fun. It is great to see a girl who is smart and doesn’t fall into the trap of being a princess or snarky. I think that many young kids can have fun reading these books.
If it helps at all, according to Scholastic, these are the reading level breakdowns:
Lexil – 480
RL – 2.2
DRA – 20
Guided Reading – L
One comment