The Great Art Scandal

Our kids love solving mystery games. They seem to be having a lot of fun with this book, but getting them started was a little slow: there is a clue-tracker sheet that one must create before moving on with the book and, for some reason, our girls (9 and 12) seemed a little put off by this task. But, now they have done that and seem very engrossed in the art scandal. My only recommendation is to 1. Maybe plan to help your kids create this clue-tracker sheet or, 2. The publisher should include it as a tear-out item in the book (which probably adds to production cost).

I put this book out as extra reading during free time. The kids can't get enough of trying to solve the mystery. They don't realize they are learning about art at the same time.

The day after I gave this book to my 12 year old niece, she called to say, "I LOVE my birthday book...are there any more like it?" And there are, thank goodness! This is the cleverest idea I've seen yet for enticing people to really look at art...and not just kids. Upon receiving the book, I immediatly sat down to solve the puzzle and didn't get up until about two hours later. The framework for presenting the art, that the reader is a detective attempting to find the fakes, is completely self motivating and the fakes are so well done that one must really look closely to discover the differences. The Great Art Scandal, another book in the series, is quite a bit harder to solve...I am still working on the third book, Art Auction Mystery.

I bought this for Christmas for my son who is 7 yrs. old. We enjoy looking for the clues together, while learning about some of the most famous painters and their paintings! It is a lot of fun! I suggest keeping a notebook and pencil by this book, as you will need to keep track of painting details! Enjoy - great investment!