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A review by finesilkflower
Claudia and the Clue in the Photograph by Ann M. Martin, Hodges Soileau
4.0
Claudia captures a vital clue in a bank heist on film.
Claudia is taking two summer school classes - remedial math (for her parents) and photography (for herself). She adores photography and gets really into it, creating a small darkroom in her closet, and seeing everyday moments as photo ops, to the irritation of her family. Inspired by her, the club decides to make a "Day in the Life of Stonybrook" photo book to send to Dawn in California. Later, they learn that the bank was robbed at the time time they were taking pictures, and when Claudia specifically was taking a ton of pictures of the bank because she became enraptured with the architecture. The club pores over their photos trying to find some clue to the bank heist.
The ending of this one is weak - typical BSC mystery nonsense involving the police detective who says "now now these girls have helped us before" and letting them run roughshod over the law - and the stakes are spectacularly low, since who cares about the bank really.
But I love everything about the rest: the neat construction of the plot, the highly specific details about how photography works (including artistic decisions and the technical aspects of film development), and overall Claudia's highly in-character, infectious enthusiasm about photography which feels really real and relatable to me as an amateur photographer.
Read as a kid? Yes. While I typically skipped mysteries, especially higher-numbered ones, somehow I happened on this one (probably the cover intrigued me; I loved Claudia and I loved Read Window). This was one of my later acquisitions but quickly became a favorite that I read over and over.
Claudia is taking two summer school classes - remedial math (for her parents) and photography (for herself). She adores photography and gets really into it, creating a small darkroom in her closet, and seeing everyday moments as photo ops, to the irritation of her family. Inspired by her, the club decides to make a "Day in the Life of Stonybrook" photo book to send to Dawn in California. Later, they learn that the bank was robbed at the time time they were taking pictures, and when Claudia specifically was taking a ton of pictures of the bank because she became enraptured with the architecture. The club pores over their photos trying to find some clue to the bank heist.
The ending of this one is weak - typical BSC mystery nonsense involving the police detective who says "now now these girls have helped us before" and letting them run roughshod over the law - and the stakes are spectacularly low, since who cares about the bank really.
But I love everything about the rest: the neat construction of the plot, the highly specific details about how photography works (including artistic decisions and the technical aspects of film development), and overall Claudia's highly in-character, infectious enthusiasm about photography which feels really real and relatable to me as an amateur photographer.
Read as a kid? Yes. While I typically skipped mysteries, especially higher-numbered ones, somehow I happened on this one (probably the cover intrigued me; I loved Claudia and I loved Read Window). This was one of my later acquisitions but quickly became a favorite that I read over and over.