The Chinese New Year Mystery

This is the 39th book in the Nancy Drew Notebooks series. Nancy is 8 and is in the third grade along with George and Bess. There are also a couple of Oriental students in the class, one of whom is Mari Cheng. The class has been studying Chinese culture for a month and they are going to have a parade using a student-made dragon.

The class Nancy is in makes a dragon's head for the costume and, in true mystery fashion, the head disappears. There are a number of suspects including a student that is made since he wasn't chosen to carry the head in the parade, a girl that says the Chinese New Year concept is stupid, and some girls from another class that are angry since their class didn't get to make the dragon head.

Nancy visits the homes of the suspects and the homes of the two Orientals in class. One of the families has a very nasty cousin named Vincent who is a total obnoxious brat.

'Pudding Pie' is Mr. Drew's special name for Nancy.

Nancy, George and Bess gather clues to the disappearance and are able to solve the crime and the entire school enjoys the parade.

It's a pretty good book for younger readers although, in this day and age with proficiency tests going to all levels of schools, I don't see where an elementary school could devote a full month to the study of anyone's culture.


Main Index

Yadult Index

Nancy Drew Main Page