Arthur's Mystery Envelope
Written by Marc Brown
Illustrated by Marc Brown
Reviewed by Isabelle K. (age 8)
One day in the cafeteria, Arthur and his friends were playing milk carton hockey, batting crushed milk cartons into pretend goals. Then, suddenly, Mr. Haney, the principal, told Arthur to go to his office now! Everyone gasped. Arthur was super worried and had butterflies in his stomach. He had never been to the principal’s office before. As he walked slowly to the principal’s office, he worried about what was going to happen. Arthur was handed an envelope. When he got home, his sibling, D.W., was teasing him about Arthur maybe being in trouble! She kept saying things like, “Just you wait till mom finds out about this!” and other things a sibling would probably say if they wanted you to get into even more trouble! Before Arthur has a chance to talk to his mom, his mom sees the envelope and picks it up while she’s on a call! Arthur can’t tell her anything! Then his mom accidentally drops the envelope into the garbage because she is distracted with her phone call. Later that night Arthur has a bad dream that the envelope gets bigger and bigger and comes out of the garbage! Arthur wakes up. It was just a bad dream! What is in that envelope? A terrible letter from the principal? Will the note be shocking or will it turn out to be nothing? Or, will it be the two most dreaded words in the English language: summer school?!! Read the book to find out! Then, you will be able to solve the mystery of the envelope!
I think that this book is great because it is suspenseful. It is a good mystery and you never know what will happen until the very end. My favorite part is when Arthur got sent to the principal’s office. When Mr. Haney, Arthur’s principal, called him down, it was then that the book got really exciting!
I really recommend this book for you if you like mysteries. Like Arthur, I think all school age children could relate to the feeling of not knowing if they are in trouble or not, especially if the principal asks to see you! I think this book is especially good for 2nd and 3rd grade students as it is not too hard to read and it is interesting.