Nate the Great and the Boring Beach Bag

Author:  Marjorie Sharmat
Lexile measure: 360
Language:  Acceptable.  One page of text in cursive.
Violence:  None.
Big Kid Mature Topics:   One of the characters is sort of witch-like--she dresses in dark clothes, is strange, and has black cats named different variations of "Hex".  I don't think the series as a whole really glamorizes witchcraft, though.
Illustrations:  Black and white shaded drawings, every few pages.
Plot:  complex.

DD left this one alone.  Not sure if she read and finished it on the way home from the library, or if she saw it was a "boy's book" and left it alone.  This series is a nice one even if you have an advanced reader because the mystery part forces them to think and deduce, not just read.  Its not great literature, but among books in its reading level, it stands out as being able to tell some pretty original stories with limited vocabulary.  These aren't books I'd get to keep, but we definitely look for them in the library on a regular basis.