Mystery Story 1. Maria’s Missing Money

Maria opened up her purse.
“Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three dollars and five, ten, fifteen cents,” she counted aloud. That would be enough. She jumped into the backseat of the car with her seven year old sister, Karen, and their Mother  drove off. She was going shopping with her best friend at a new store that sold some nice and inexpensive jewelry, purses, makeup, and all kinds of nice things that a girl would want. When they reached the store, Maria’s best friend Cecilia was waiting with her Mom in front of the store. She waved Maria and her Mother over. They walked into the store, and Maria and Cecilia walked off together, and the Mothers started a conversation. Karen looked around for something to do, and spotting some balls started playing with them.
“Look at this bouncy ball thing,” said Cecilia as she bounced a little ball on the ground and it make a hilarious squeaking noise.
“I’ve got to buy that!” said Maria as she looked at the price tag. She took it up to the lady at the counter, and she paid for it. It was three dollars.
“Why not just wait until we’re done shopping to buy that?” asked Cecilia. Maria shrugged her shoulders. She opened up her purse to put the ball it, when an exited little girl ran past Maria and knocked the purse out of her hands.
“Sorry,” the little girl said, and then she looked down at the floor. There was money everywhere.  The little girl picked up a few coins.
“Sorry, those are mine,” said Maria.
“Oh,” said the little girl as she dropped the money and ran off. Maria and Cecilia picked up the money, and they made sure to get every coin and dollar bill.
“Hopefully we didn’t miss anything,” said Cecilia. They walked over to an aisle that had some jewelry and began to look at it. Maria put her purse on the shelf, and she picked up a ring and tried it on her finger.
When they were done shopping, they took their items to the counter and checked them out. When Maria opened her purse to get her money, it was gone!
“My money’s all gone!” she wailed.
“Who took Maria’s money?” yelled Cecilia. The little girl who had knocked Maria’s purse out of her hands blinked and ran behind the corner. A couple of girls at the end of the store looked at each other and didn’t say a word.
A girl from the back of the store yelled: “Not me!” Karen walked over to Maria and said:
“I don’t know where your twenty dollars went.”
“Sorry,” said the lady at the checkout counter. Cecilia payed for her purchase, and Maria walked out of the store with her empty-handed, and sad-faced.
“I really wonder where your money went,” said Cecilia. “Maybe that little girl took it, or maybe you didn’t pick it all up off of the ground?”
“But we did pick it up, Cecilia.”
“Yeah, we did,” Cecilia agreed. The two girls walked outside along with Karen, and their Mothers, who were still deep in a conversation. They sat on a bench and waited until the Mothers were done talking.

Where did Maria’s Money go? Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

 

Answer:  Maria’s money was taken by Karen, because when Cecilia yelled: “Who took Maria’s money?” she didn’t say how much was stolen, but Karen said: “I don’t know where your twenty dollars went.” And the only way that Karen knew that Maria had twenty dollars was if she stole it.

 

Mystery Story 2. The Case of the Crayon Scribbles

Maria walked into the kitchen to get a drink. Her mother was standing by the stove cooking dinner. Her little 1-year-old brother, David, was sitting on the floor stacking blocks on top of each other. Maria opened the cabinet and grabbed a cup. She walked to the fridge to fill it with water. When it was full, she filled it with ice. As she stood drinking in the kitchen, little David crawled into the dining room. Maria followed him. Suddenly, she stopped and stared at the wall. There were blue scribbles all over it! Who could have done that? Maria thought as she went to grab a sponge and warm water. It was Maria’s ob to wash the kitchen and dining room walls every week, so Maria found a sponge and filled a bucket up with warm water. As she walked back to the dining room, she thought,”whoever did this should clean it up, not me. But as Maria looked at David crawling on the floor, she assumed that he had done it. He’s only little, she thought as she scrubbed the wall. When she returned to the kitchen to put away her cleaning supplies, er mother was taking lasagna out of the over.

“Cleaning walls?” she asked.

“Yes,” Maria answered. “Somebody scribbled all over that wall in the dining room,”
she said as she pointed to the wall in the dining room.

“Well, it looks like you cleaned it all up,” her mother said. “Go tell everybody that it is time to eat.”

Maria ran downstairs to the playroom.

“Dinner is ready!” she called to her siblings, who were playing. Everyone filed into the dining room. Maria’s father was getting washed up for dinner. Everyone was sitting down except for Karen. “I’ll go get Karen,” said Maria as she ran upstairs. “She must be in our room.”

Maria found Karen sitting on the floor reading. Next to her wearer some crayons, including a few blue ones. Eyeing the blue crayons suspiciously, Maria told Karen that it was time to eat dinner.

When everyone was seated around the table and eating, Maria brought up the topic of the creation scribbles on the wall.

“Did anyone see scribble on the dining room wall over there?” she asked, pointing to where the scribbles had been.

“Scribbles?” he father asked.

“Yes, crayon scribbles,” Maria replied.

“I didn’t see anything,” her 17-year-old sister said.

“Are you accusing ME of drawing on the wall with crayons?” asked her 15-year-old brother, Martin. “Joe probably did it.”

“It wasn’t me!” 6-year-old Joe hastened to say. “I saw crayons in Karen’s room!”

“Oh, yeah! I was coloring!” Karen defended herself. “And if I wanted to draw on the wall, I wouldn’t scribble! I would make a work of art!”

“Unless if you scribbled to make it look like Joe did it,” Martin stated.

“Or YOU did it, Martin! Where would I get a blue crayon anyway? Mom locks them in the closet and we have to get permission to use them!”

“I said it wasn’t me,” Martin said, laughing.

“Probably was you, Martin,” said Karen.

“Children, Maria cleaned it up and that is that. It was probably baby David,” said their mother. “Stop arguing.”

“Wait!” said Maria. I know who it was!”

Do you know who scribbled on the wall? Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

 

Answer:

Joe did it.

Only Maria and the person who scribbled on the wall saw the scribbling. They were the only ones who knew what color the scribbling was. Joe gave himself away when he said: “Where would I get a BLUE crayon anyway?” And second, Joe was in the girl’s room. Why was he in there? He was probably looking for a way to get Karen in trouble.

 

 

Mystery Story 3. The Cupcake Mistake

 Maria placed the flour on the counter. She took the bag of sugar form the top shelf. Maria yawned. It was only 8:00 in the morning and she was baking. Her family was invited to a St. Valentine’s day party and Maria was baking cupcakes. Maria pulled out a small bag of pink candies from the pantry. She would put these on top of the cupcakes. Maria began to measure the flour into a bowl.Her little sister, Karen, who was now eight years old, sleepily stepped into the kitchen. As Karen’s eyes wandered about the kitchen, they stopped and opened wide. Maria was baking! Karen loved to bake!

“Can I help?” she pleaded in a sweet little way.

“Ok, wash your hands,” Maria said. “We need 1 cup of sugar,” said Maria. Karen quickly washed her hands and began to look for a measuring cup. “We only have a half measuring cup,” said Karen. ” can’t find the one-cup measuring cup!”

“It’s ok. We can use 2 of that half-cup to make one cup. Two halfs equal a hole. Karen quickly poured 2 half-cups into another bowl.

“Beat the butter and sugar together,” Maria instructed. As Karen did so, Maria preheated the oven and put muffin cups in the muffin pan. Maria looked at her recipe and read it out loud: “Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together. We need two teaspoons of baking powder.” Maria opened up the kitchen utensil drawer and looked around for a teaspoon. “Why can’t I ever find anything,” she mumbled to herself as she pulled out a fourth teaspoon. I’ll just put 4 of these in.” After she did so, Karen added 2 eggs to the butter-sugar mixture and beat it on high with their electric mixer. Maria added a little vanilla extract and a fourth of a cup milk. Then, the girls added the dry ingredients. Karen began to beat the batter on hight speed.

“Karen!” Maria cried. “Don’t do that! Beat it on low! If you beat it on high, the baking powder will go flat and ruin our recipe!” Karen reduced the speed to low. Then, slowly, they divided the batter between the muffin cups and put the cupcakes in the oven. Their little brother, Joe ran into the kitchen a few minutes later.

“Mmm! Something smells good!” he said as he opened the oven wide and peered inside.

“Shut the over, Joe, or else those cupcakes will ruin or something!” Karen said.

“You are making cupcakes?” Asked their 17-year-old sister, Julia. “Can I help?”

“You can make the icing,” suggested Maria. “The recipe is right there,” she said as she pointed to the counter. “I’m going to go get dressed. I’m still in my pajamas.”

“I already got dressed,” said Karen. Maria ran upstairs to get dressed. When she came down, Julia and Karen had finished making the icing.

“Let’s go play a board game while we wait,” suggested Julia. So they did. After they had played for a while, Maria glanced up at the clock. It was 9:33!

“I was supposed to get the cupcakes out of the oven 3 minutes ago!” she cried. The three sister ran to the kitchen. Julia grabbed a hot mitt and opened the oven door. As she took out the cupcakes, the girls stared at them with open mouths! The cupcakes were all flat-ish looking!

“Oh no!” cried the three girls at the same time.

What happened to the cupcakes? Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

Answer:

It was mostly Maria’s fault. The recipe called for 2 teaspoons of baking powder, but Maria only put in 1 teaspoon by putting in 4 quarter teaspoons. She was a teaspoon short! (It also may have been a tiny bit of Karen’s fault for over-mixing.) Joe opening the oven wouldn’t have caused them to go flat, and over-baking would burn them, not cause them to go flat.

 

 

 

 

Mystery Story 4. The Crochet Confusion

When she woke up, Maria looked at the family calendar that was in their kitchen. It was March 12th. On March 13, it said: Maria and Karen crocheting class 11:00-11:30. Maria had almost forgotten about the crocheting class! Ever since the girls had bought some crocheted scarves, they wanted to make their own. When their mom saw a class at a nearby craft store, she signed the two girls up for it.

The next day, the girls grabbed some of their yarn and new crochet hook that they had bought, and packed them up in a bag. The two girls then sat down and began to eat some oatmeal that their mom had made for breakfast.

“I’m excited!” Karen said.

“Me too!” Maria replied. “When do we have to leave, mom?”

“It starts at 11:00 and takes a half an hour to get there, so we will leave at 10:30,” their mother replied. As the rest of the children sat down to eat, Maria and Karen put their bowls in the sink.

“It is 10:00 now, so we have 30 minutes to play,” Maria stated. At 10:30, Maria, Karen, Baby David, and their mother got into the car and drove to the craft store. They arrived exactly on time. When they went inside, they found where the class was at. A few ladies were setting up tables.

“Is this where the class is at?” Maria’s mother asked.

“Yes. It starts in an hour.”

“At 12:00?”

“No, at 11:00.”

Maria’s mother looked at her watch. “But it is 11:00 now!”

“I’m sorry, but it is only 10:00.”

Maria mother was very confused. “You must be wrong!”

Who is wrong? Why? Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

Answer:

Maria’s mother was wrong. The night of March 12th to March 13th is Daylight savings time. Maria’s mother forgot to change the clocks!

 

Mystery Story 5.  Problem at the Library

 

Maria was excited. Every spring, their local library would have a reading contest. For every half an hour of reading books, you get a slip to fill out and put in a box for a prize. There were 10 prizes. One you read for 15 hours, you get to put in one slip for the Grand Prize. Maria couldn’t wait to see what the Grand Prize was! Last year, it was movie theater tickets. When Maria, her siblings, and her mom arrived at the library, her mom signed the kids up for the reading contest. Maria, Martin, and Karen went to see what the prizes were. Julie helped her mom by holding Baby David as her mom signed the kids up for the contest. Joe was trying to fill out his name for the librarian, but he was having trouble writing the letter “J.”

“Wow! Karen, look!” Maria said. “One of the mini prizes is a notebook, colored pencils, and a whole drawing kit!”

“Cool!” Karen said.

“Hey” There are even little dinosaur toys! Joe will like those!” Martin said.

“I wonder what the Grand Prize is,” Karen said.

“Let’s go see,” replied Maria. “I hope it is something good!”

“Wow! It is a camera!” Karen said.

“Cool” Maria replied.

“When is the drawing for the prizes?” Martin asked a librarian.

“On April 31st,” replied the librarian. “We will call you at noon if you win.”

“Ok!” Martin said.

After they had all signed up, they returned home. At home, Maria realized something! Nobody could win any prizes!

Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

Answer:

Nobody would be able to win any prizes because April 31st is not a day! There are only 30 days in April!

 

 

Mystery Story 6. The Bunny Problem

It was Maria’s birthday! She was turning 13 years old! Maria always wanted a rabbit as a pet, so when her mom and dad announced that they were bringing her to the pet store to get one, Maria was very excited! The whole family got in the car and drove to the pet store.

When they arrived, Maria soon found the perfect little bunny–a white one. She asked the lady at the store if she could hold. As Maria petted the bunny, she asked her parents if she could get it. They said yes. Everyone wanted to help pick out food and a cage for it.

“What about that blue cage?” Karen asked.

“It is too tiny,” Maria stated.

“How about this one?” asked Maria’s mother.

“It is a little big,” Maria said.

“What about this cage?” asked Martin as he pointed to a little black one.

“Perfect!’ Maria said.

“Very good,” said her mother. “Let’s look for bunny food.”

They soon found some good bunny food. They also saw a bunny water holder. Then they checked out. On the ride home, everyone wanted to hold Maria’s bunny. She let everyone have a short turn holding him.

“What will you name him?” asked Maria’s dad.

“I think I’ll name him Cottontail,” Maria replied.

When they were home, they set up Cottontail’s cage in the hallway. Maria gave him some food and put some water in his water holder. Soon, it was time to eat her own dinner. Her family had ordered pizza for Maria’s birthday. Her mother had also made a salad. When everyone was eating pizza and salad, Maria brought Cottontail some little pieces of  carrot, lettuce, and fresh spinach from her salad. Cottontail liked them. Maria gave him some more spinach and then went to finish her own dinner.

After everyone had eaten, her mom brought in a fresh-baked cake that she had made and decorated. It was chocolate, Maria’s favorite kind. After eating cake, Maria went to the hallway to play with Cottontail. Karen and Julie came over to play with him as well. He bounced around a lot. Julie tickled him behind the ears. Karen gave him some carrot shat she had saved for him. Maria gave him some more water.

“Watch him for a second, please,” Maria said. “I have to clean the dining room up.”

“Ok! Karen said.”

When she returned, Cottontail was hopping around. He stopped and began to eat something off of the floor. It was pieces of paint that were chipped off the wall!

“Don’t eat that!” Maria cried as she picked up the paint pieces. She ran to the kitchen to throw them away in the trashcan. When she returned, Cottontail was lying on the floor. Karen and Julie were bending over him and poking at him.

“Something happened to Cottontail!” Karen said.

“What did you do to him?” Maria cried as she picked him up. He was still in the same position as when he was on the floor. She poked at him.

“We didn’t do anything!” Julie cried.

“He just lied down on the floor!” Karen said.

“Maybe he choked on paint pieces!” Julie cried.

“He is still breathing. He seems sick,” Maria said.

“I don’t think it was the paint,” Karen said.

“We need to find out what’s wrong with him fast!” Maria cried.

Just them, Martin walked in.

“I think I know what happened to him,” Martin said.

 Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

Answer: Maria fed Cottontail spinach, and spinach is poisonous to rabbits. Cottontail was sick and needs to go to the vet.

 

 

Mystery Story 7. The Picnic Problem

One nice Saturday morning during breakfast, Maria’s mother said:

“Today, we are all going on a picnic at the park!”

“Yay!” said of the children said at he same time.

“Can I help pack the food?” asked Julie.

“Me too! I want to help!” Maria said.

“I want to help!” Karen said.

“Alright. You guys can help,” their mother said.

“Yay!” said Julie, Maria, and Karen at the same time.

After breakfast, their mother got out the picnic basket.

“We will have sandwiches,” she said as she placed the picnic basket on the table. Karen took the bread from the pantry and Maria took some meat and cheese from the refrigerator. As they made the sandwiches, Julie washed some apples and put them in a paper bag. She grabbed 6 water bottles  from the refrigerator and placed them in the cooler with some pre-frozen popsicles. She put a bag of ice in and brought the cooler to the car.

“How many sandwiches are we making?” Maria asked.

“We will make 8 sandwiches,” said her mother.

“Here is the 8th sandwich,” Karen said as she placed a piece of cheese on a sandwich and put it on the counter.

“Put 2in each bag,” their mother said. Maria did so.

“Let’s go play!” Karen said.

“Ok!” Maria replied.

A half an hour later, their mother said: “We are leaving!”

“Ok!” said Maria and Karen at the same time. They put on their shoes and got in the car with everyone else.

“Pack up the bag of sandwiches and put them in the picnic basket, Karen,” said their mother. Karen grabbed the 2 bags of sandwiches that she saw sitting on the counter and put them in the picnic basket along with the apples, napkins, blanket, and plastic utensils that were already in there. She grabbed the picnic basket and ran to the car. Then, everyone left for the park.

When they were there, the kids ran off to play as their mom and dad set up the picnic lunch at a picnic table in the shade of a tree. Their mom spread out a blanket to play on and placed Baby David on it. Then, she unpacked the picnic basket and cooler. The kids ran back to see if it was time to eat yet. Their mother was sitting at the table with a worried look on her face. Their dad was digging through the picnic basket.

“I’m afraid that we didn’t make enough sandwiches!” their mom said.

“Wasn’t 8 sandwiches enough?” Maria asked.

“We only have 4 here!” her mother said.

“But we made 8!”

“You must have not made 8. We only have 4 here. If you made 8, what happened to the other 4 sandwiches?” asked Maria’s mother.

Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

Answer: They made 8 sandwiches. They packed 2 in each bag. That means that were were 4 bags total. Karen saw only 2 bags sitting on the counter and grabbed them. The other 2 bags were still on the counter. That is where the other 4 sandwiches went.

 

 

 

 

Mystery Story 8. The Missing Book

Outside in the grass next to her mom’s rocking swing sat Julie, reading one of those books that are so good, you just can’t put down! You can’t put that book down unless you are really tired at night or there is something urgent going on that you need to put it down. It was a nice evening. Her mom was sitting on the swing rocking Baby David. Karen,  Maria, and Martin were playing tag. Joe was inside the house playing with blocks. Suddenly, he ran out of the house.

Julie! I think that the cookies that you are making are burning!” called 6-year-old Joe to his 17-year-old sister. Julie quickly set her book down on her mom’s rocking swing and rushed inside to the kitchen followed by Joe. Julie put on an oven mitt and opened the oven. Julie quickly took out of tray that was full of chocolate chip cookies that were dark and crisp. She flipped one over. It was really burnt. Joe walked into the kitchen and sniffed the air. “Those are burnt,” said Joe.

“I know,” Julie said as she put the burnt cookies on a tray to cool.

“Ouch! They are hot!” Joe said as he gulped down some cold water. “I burnt my tongue on that cookie!”

“Well, yeah, it just came out of the oven,” Julie said. “They need to cool first. I have some more dough. You can help me make some more cookies if you want.”

“I would rather not,” Joe mumbled with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. “My tongue hurts too much!”

Julie set to work herself placing spoonfuls of dough onto a cookie tray.

Outside, Karen, Maria, and Martin were done playing tag. Maria walked to the garage. Inside, her dad was picking up a huge pile of scrap papers and newspapers on the floor. Next to the big pile of scrap papers and newspapers was a big pile of sticks.

“I’m going to build a fire with all of this stuff and we can roast marshmallows!” Maria’s dad said. “Please bring that big pile of sticks outside by our little fire pit.” Maria picked up the big pile of sticks and her dad picked up the huge pile of scrap papers and newspapers. They brought the scrap papers, newspapers, and sticks outside. Maria’s dad put them down on the swing and went inside to get some matches and marshmallows. Maria threw the sticks in the fire pit.

Inside, Julie and Joe were taking cookies out of the oven. This time they were not burnt.

“Come on outside. We are going to roast marshmallows!” Julie and Joe’s dad said as he grabbed the matches and the marshmallows. Julie and Joe followed their dad outside. “Find some good sticks to roast marshmallows on!” he told everyone as he picked up everything that was on the swing and threw everything into the fire pit. Julie, Martin, Maria, Karen, and Joe ran off to find sticks. Their dad lit the fire. Their mom got up off of the swing with Baby David and walked to the fire pit. When the kids returned with their sticks, their dad took them and told them to bring out lawn chairs for everyone to sit on. When they returned with the lawn chairs, they put them around the fire and sat down. The kids each put a marshmallow on their stick and sat around the fire as they roasted them. Their mom sat on a chair with Baby David in her lap. Baby David was eating a plain marshmallow that was not toasted. When everyone had toasted their marshmallows, they ate them.

“Maybe I will read my book while I sit by the fire,” Julie said.  She got up to look for her book. She couldn’t find it anywhere!

Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

 

Answer: Julie left her book on the swing when she went inside to take the cookies out of the oven. Her dad put the huge pile of scrap papers and newspapers on top of her book on the swing. Then, he went inside to get matches and marshmallows. After that, he came back outside and picked up the papers and Julie’s book and threw it all into the fire! Julie’s book got thrown into the fire!

 

 

Mystery Story 9. The Candy Thief

“More books!” Baby David said. Maria was sitting on the couch in her family’s living room reading books to David. She had read him five already and he still wanted more.

“Ok. I wil read one more book.”

“Yay!”

“Maria!” Maria’s mother called.

“Wait right here, David. I’ll be right back. Yes?” Maria walked into the kitchen where her mother had called from. Her mother was standing holding a big, empty twix bar bag. She had a frown on her face.

“Maria, did you eat these?”

“No.”

“Someone ate them! I bought them at the grocery store this morning when I went food shopping. I came home and put away the food. I left the bag of twix bars on the counter here. Now all that is left is this bag! Someone ate all ten bars!”

“It wasn’t me.”

“It wasn’t me!” echoed David as he walked into the kitchen, obviously tired of waiting for Maria.

“Maybe it was David,” Maria said.

“He couldn’t have eaten all the twix bars. They were up on the counter where he couldn’t reach.”

“Was is Joe?”

“I didn’t eat them!” Joe said as he ran into the the kitchen. He had been playing blocks with Karen in the living room.

“Did you?” Maria mom asked.

“No!”

Maria noticed that Joe’s breath smelled like peanuts.

“It was not *sniff* me,” Karen said as she walked into the room. *Sniff.* Karen’s pants pockets were bulging. *Sniff.* Karen had a cold.  Her pockets were probably stuffed with tissues, guessed Maria *Sniff.*

“Was it Martin?” Maria asked.

“No. I dropped him off at his friend’s house this morning to play and have lunch. Them I went shopping,” said Maria’s mom.

“Julie?”

“I doubt it was her. She has been reading up in her bedroom all morning.”

“Was it dad?”

“No. He has been working outside all morning.”

“I know who ate them!” Maria exclaimed.

 Scroll down to see the answer!

 

 

 

Answer: It was obviously either Joe or Karen. It wasn’t Joe because his breath smelled like peanut butter, but peanut butter isn’t in twix bars, so it was Karen. Her pockets were not full of tissues. They were full of twix bar wrappers!