I purchased the Mysteries on Zoo Lane volumes one, two and three right after Patricia Reilly Giff passed. I was going to use them for Bingo (animals on cover), but while they would have been easy to read, I found other books instead. The nice thing about this series is, even if I was not crazy about it, I knew some of my younger cousins would get a kick out of it. However, I did enjoy reading each one (a quick, hour or so to read, though I will be doing a reread I believe as they were fun enough to go back and see what I missed).
Each book deals with one of the children who live on Zoo Lane. This is a special lane as it has a zoo in everyone’s backyard. You can hear lions roar, watch babies born, and as ostriches roam, you can sit and draw them. The ideas of conservation, animal care, friendship, and problem-solving all come together in each short novel. In the first novel, Meet the Crew at the Zoo, Luke, the new kid in town, not only meets the other kids, but finds a zebra print box. The mystery is for Luke to figure out who it might belong to. In volume two, Animal at Large Tori and her cousin, Sumiko (all the way from Japan) must find out what the torn sign they find says and what is making the sound that sounds like the word: Tough. Finally, Zebra at the Zoo has Alex wanting to do a project on red pandas, but another student has gotten that project. Not only that, but he also finds a hole in the zoo fence, is in trouble with a zookeeper and his own cat has gone missing!
Abby Carter does simple, but fun black and white illustrations to enhance the text every so often. While you can read without them, these breaks help you comprehend what is going on. These and the other animal facts at the end of the book wrap up the adventures nicely.
All ages can be read to, the older reader around first to third grade, can enjoy solo or with some help.