Reviews for The First Hard Times

The average rating for The First Hard Times based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-03-23 00:00:00 Carlos Valdez JF-Smi

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-23 00:00:00 Christopher James Cam Jansen and her best friend Eric Shelton solve a mystery at an amusement park in this thirteenth entry in David A. Adler's chapter-book series devoted to their adventures. When Aunt Katie's wallet goes missing, Cam soon comes to believe it is stolen, and through the use of her photographic memory, realizes that the theft occurred while everyone was walking through the Haunted House attraction. Soon she and Eric, along with Aunt Katie and Uncle George, are hot on the heels of the thief... At a brief 58 pages, Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Haunted House is, like its predecessors, intended for young readers who are just getting going with chapter-book reading. The mystery itself is fairly rudimentary - most of the books in this series involve some kind of theft - but the target audience will no doubt find it suspenseful. I have fond memories of reading some of the earlier books in this series when I was a young girl, although by the time this one was first published, in 1992, I had moved on. As a whole, I think the series, although by no means brilliant, is entertaining. I do wish that Eric was given more to do, and that the resolution didn't always rely on Cam's photographic memory, but that's the down-side of formulaic series reading. The upside, of course, is that it provides structure and repetition for readers who are just finding their feet with longer books. Recommended to beginning chapter-book readers who enjoy mysteries, and to fans of Cam Jansen.