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MetaFour
MOD
(Old Master)
9th Jan, 2018 08:20:00 AM
Overlaps with The Family for the Whole Family, perhaps.
Scorpion451
(Edited uphill both ways)
Seen this mostly in literature. Children who have pursued a certain goal all the way through the book end up inadvertently discovering criminals at work and become instrumental in capturing them/alerting police. At some point these start to seem sort of inserted just to give the book an action climax. Often they decide to become an Amateur Detective thinking police work is more exciting.
- In E.W. Hildick's The Active-Enzyme, Lemon-Freshened, Junior High School Witch, Alison has been studying Ritual Magic, then thinks her neighbor is a sorceress; turns out she's one of a gang of art thieves. In the final chapter she abandons witchcraft to become The Top-Flight Fully-Automated Junior High School Girl Detective.
- Bab: A Sub-Deb by Mary Roberts Rhinehart has Bab and her friends meeting for amateur military drills on the eve of WWI, including learning semaphore. Bab subsequently uncovers a German plot going on among some of the servants in her own home and uses signals to alert a neighbor.
- The Witch's Daughter by Nina Bawden has three children ultimately foiling jewel thieves.
- The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder has Robin trapped by burglars before they are caught, and '"The Egypt Game'' has April attacked by the real child molester/murderer so she can tell police it isn't the eccentric old guy everybody thinks it is.
- Tall & Proud by Vian Smith is about a young woman recovering from polio who must go through painful physical therapy. She is given a lame horse so they can rehabilitate together. There's a burglar and the woman finally rides the horse to get help.
Edited by CaptEquinox