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Nancy must find the missing music tape before 3:00 on Sunday or else the ballet recital will be cancelled.Tags
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Nancy and her classmates are all excited (and nervous) about their upcoming ballet production of "Scenes from Peter Pan" when the special cassette tape with their music goes missing right before dress rehearsal. What's worse is that everyone starts to blame Nancy's best friend, Bess, of taking the tape. Can Nancy clear Bess's name and find the tape in time to save the recital?
This is the fourth book in a spin-off series in which Nancy Drew is only eight years old. The solution to the mystery was obvious to me from before the tape even went missing but there's sufficient red herrings to keep the reader on their toes, especially for the intended audience of elementary school-age children. (Mild spoiler:One of these times it's going to show more have to actually be Brenda at fault for all the times they make her a top suspect. )
Although this is still pretty tame as a mystery, I do like that it felt a little more like the classic Nancy Drew stories, particularly when Nancy gets temporarily 'locked' into a dark room, that the stakes are higher with Bess's name being smirched, and the 'race against the clock' element, no matter how contrived it is.
That being said, it's still a simple enough story with basic language for young readers. Like other books in the series, it does sometimes get bogged down in describing inane actions (e.g., the girls ride their bikes to the ice cream shop, they park their bikes, they lean against their bikes to eat their ice cream, etc. etc. etc. but with even more details than I just provided).
The illustrations make this book seem even more dated than the story revolving around a missing cassette tape. I'm also convinced that this series illustrator has never seen an 8-year-old because the illustrations look more like 10- or 11-year-olds. show less
This is the fourth book in a spin-off series in which Nancy Drew is only eight years old. The solution to the mystery was obvious to me from before the tape even went missing but there's sufficient red herrings to keep the reader on their toes, especially for the intended audience of elementary school-age children. (Mild spoiler:
Although this is still pretty tame as a mystery, I do like that it felt a little more like the classic Nancy Drew stories, particularly when Nancy gets temporarily 'locked' into a dark room, that the stakes are higher with Bess's name being smirched, and the 'race against the clock' element, no matter how contrived it is.
That being said, it's still a simple enough story with basic language for young readers. Like other books in the series, it does sometimes get bogged down in describing inane actions (e.g., the girls ride their bikes to the ice cream shop, they park their bikes, they lean against their bikes to eat their ice cream, etc. etc. etc. but with even more details than I just provided).
The illustrations make this book seem even more dated than the story revolving around a missing cassette tape. I'm also convinced that this series illustrator has never seen an 8-year-old because the illustrations look more like 10- or 11-year-olds. show less
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925+ Works 201,405 Members
Carolyn Keene was the pseudonym that Mildred Wirt Benson and Walter Karig used to write Nancy Drew books. The idea of Nancy Drew came from Edward Stratemeyer in 1929. He also had other series, that included the Hardy Boys, but he died in 1930 before the Nancy Drew series became famous. His daughters, Harriet and Edna, inherited his company and show more maintained Nancy Drew having Mildred Wirt Benson, the original Carolyn Keene, as the principal ghostwriter. During the Depression, they asked Benson to take a pay cut and she refused, which is when Karig wrote the books. Karig's Nancy Drew books were Nancy's Mysterious Letter, The Sign of the Twisted Candles, and Password to Larkspur Lane. He was fired from writing more books because of his refusal to honor the request that he keep his work as Carolyn Keene a secret. He allowed the Library of Congress to learn of his authorship and his name appeared on their catalog cards. Afterwards, they rehired Benson and she wrote until her last Nancy Drew book (#30) was written in 1953, Clue of the Velvet Mask. Harriet and Edna Stratemeyer also contributed to the Nancy Drew series. Edna wrote plot outlines for several of the early books and Harriet, who claimed to be the sole author, had actually outlined and edited nearly all the volumes written by Benson. The Stratemeyer Syndicate had begun to make its writers sign contracts that prohibited them from claiming any credit for their works, but Benson never denied her writing books for the series. After Harriet's death in 1982, Simon and Schuster became the owners of the Stratemeyer Syndicate properties and in 1994, publicly recognized Benson for her work at a Nancy Drew conference at her alma mater, the University of Iowa. Now, Nancy Drew has several ghostwriters and artists that have contributed to her more recent incarnations. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- Bad Day for Ballet
- Original title
- Bad day for ballet
- People/Characters
- Nancy Drew
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- 238
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- 136,154
- Reviews
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- (3.57)
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- English, Norwegian (Bokmål), Swedish
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- ISBNs
- 15
- ASINs
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