Nancy Brown and Hillside Education have teamed up for a second volume of kid-friendly mysteries adapted from G.K. Chesterton's Fr. Brown mysteries. It's a little difficult to say what age these are appropriate for since, unlike the first volume, these are all based on murder-mystery stories, and sensitivities vary from child-to-child. My rough-and-tumble seven year old son loved them as a read-aloud, but the general subject matter is off-putting for my very sensitive thirteen year old daughter.
There are four stories in this volume:
"The Invisible Man" is about a murderer who took advantage of the fact that many people are taken for granted because we see them all of the time.
"The Mirror of the Magistrate" involves a murder with some mysterious clues that could easily be interpreted in the wrong direction.
"The Eye of Apollo" tells of a prophet of a "new religion" who is up to no good.
In "The Perishing of the Pendragons", a disgruntled murderer uses superstition to cover up his crimes.
The stories emphasize the solving of each mystery and the thinking involved in the solution - which includes some very interesting insights into human nature and its foibles and limitations.
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