Book excerpt: “We did it,” Jamie yelled as she set down the last frosted cupcake. “One thousand cupcakes for the school bake sale.” They looked around. They were at the home of their friend, Shing Lee. Her family had the biggest kitchen, but the kitchen looked small when it was filled with cupcakes. There were cupcakes on every surface. There were white ones and chocolate ones. There were even strawberry cupcakes. Some had red frosting and some had white frosting. A lot of them had chocolate frosting. “There’s even a few extra for us to eat,” Kendall said. He slumped into a nearby chair. They were all tired. It had taken them over four hours to mix up the batter. Then they had spent another five hours baking and frosting them all. “Oh no!” exclaimed Shing suddenly. “What’s wrong?” Kendall asked. “My pendent,” Shing said. “It must have come off.” Kendall and Jamie both looked at their friend. She was feeling frantically at the chain around her neck, but it was no use. The pendent was gone. Can Kendall and Jamie help her find the pendant without breaking open all 1,000 cupcakes they have just baked? See if you can solve this 15-minute mystery before the Brodericks do. Similar to the old Encyclopedia Brown mysteries, these short mysteries give kids all the clues they need to solve the mystery, before revealing the answer on the last page, helping kids learn common sense and attention to detail. Ages 8 and up. LearningIsland.com believes in the value of children practicing reading for 15 minutes every day. Our 15-Minute Books give children lots of fun, exciting choices to read, from classic stories, to mysteries, to books of knowledge. Many books also work well as hi-lo readers. Open the world of reading to a child by having them read for 15 minutes a day.