Forensic Evidence: Prints (Crabtree Contact)

Grade 4–6—These titles streamline forensics with short, informative sentences and large typeface. Each one walks readers through a case that is solved by the conclusion. The books begin with the discovery of a body (Bone Detectives), or a bank robbery (Prints), and continue with steps such as examining the size and shape of a skeleton to determine a victim's characteristics and cause of death, or comparing crime-scene fingerprints to those in a police database. The labeled illustrations enhance the mystery and allow readers to follow the methodology used in CSI. Bone Detectives deals with death in a factual manner, omitting gruesome details. Questions are intermittently posed, and the answers are contained in bubbles on the same page. Interesting facts are sprinkled throughout in text boxes labeled "Is That a Fact?" and, in Bone Detectives, "Need to Know." The style is more appealing than that in the similar "Forensic Crime Solvers" series (Capstone), but those books provide a better list of additional print and online resources.—Lori A. Guenthner, Baltimore County Public Library, Randallstown, MD
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