The Problem with Nancy Drew

For the past year, I've been reading the boys some of my favorite books from my childhood.  Books like Superfudge, The Pink Motel, and The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  Recently I decided to read them my favorite Nancy Drew book.  As a kid, I think I read every one of them.

The Clue in the Crumbling Wall started off well enough.  By the time the boys' Spring Break rolled around, we were about halfway through the book.  We headed off one morning to run some errands.

I was unsuspectingly browsing through Dollar Tree when the boys started getting worked up.  They were certain they had seen a shoplifter.  Someone had stolen some pens!  They were quite insistent on reporting the matter to the manager.  But they didn't just report it.  They made all sorts of suggestions to the manager about how to catch the crook, including fingerprinting throughout the store and using hidden cameras.  They even suggested that the cashier had been hypnotized by the criminal, which was why she didn't see him leave.  Luckily, the manager seemed to find this amusing.

I dragged them away.  They insisted they could describe the thief for a profiler.  I decided I was going to need some coffee before we went anywhere else.  In the drive thru line, the boys saw a dad with a toddler.  The boys decided this dad was the thief!  He had magically appeared at Starbucks!  I asked where the toddler was during the theft, and they said at first that the toddler was an accomplice.  It didn't take them long to reason this out though....the dad was really a kidnapper!  I asked why there was no Amber Alert and they said that people didn't know yet.

I was pretty nervous about what might happen in the grocery store, as the whole way there the boys insisted that a black car with the thief/kidnapper was following us. 

I banned any further reporting of criminal activity before we went in to the grocery store.  But there were a lot of suspects in there.  The grocery store was just full of crooks that day.

The next week I got to go grocery shopping and errand running by myself.  It was so nice and quiet. 

Maybe next we'll read another Little House on the Prairie.  That seems a little...safer.