The Fourth Floor Twins and the Fish Snitch Mystery

Chapter book:
The Fourth Floor Twins and the Fish Snitch Mystery by David A. Adler and illustrated by Irene Trivas
Ages 7-10

I found things that I liked and disliked in this chapter book. I loved that the kids in the book had huge imaginations, like most kids do. Their extravagant reasoning’s for why things were happening was amusing for me. I also liked that this book was a mystery. I think mystery books are good for kid’s minds. They make them analyze, think, and predict about what is going to happen. I think it really engages a child into the reading.
I noticed there were an awful lot of quotations by the characters. I don’t know if this is a common theme in children’s chapter books, but I felt as though I have never read a book with so many quotations. There were also a lot of characters which could be confusing for a beginning reader of chapter books. I believe this book is part of a series, so maybe if a student had read multiple books with these characters they would be able to keep them straight easier.
The kids in the book were very influenced by what they had seen in the media which is a reality of children. The kids watched a movie called Tuna Fish Snitch which was about criminals who were neighbors. After watching the movie the children assumed their neighbors were criminals, simply for the fact that they were their neighbors. They started coming up with ways that their neighbors were acting weird. Also, newspapers on door steps started to go missing which was again blamed on the neighbors. I think acting out movies and t.v. shows are something that all kids do at some point in time, so would be able to relate well to this story.