Written by Lavanya Chopra when she was a grade 2 student (she’s in grade 4 now)

Chapter 1

Tracy Trim and the lost bike

Once there was a girl named Tracy. She was very smart and loved reading, especially detective novels. Her father called her ‘a little detective’, because her mother was always losing her jewellery and Tracy used to find it for her.

One day her friend Kayla came by. She told Tracy that she had lost her bike and wanted her to solve the case.

So they set off to look for the bike.

This was Tracy’s first case.

“Tell me all the details”, said Tracy.

Kayla told her that her bike was bright blue with pink stars on it.

As they were walking they saw Jane, their other friend. She was riding her bike.

Tracy noticed that Jane was going rather slow on her bike. Normally bikes are supposed to go fast. Also this bike was brown, but Kayla’s was blue. “Kayla! this is not your bike”, said Tracy. So they just waved “hi”

Suddenly Tracy fell in the mud. Kayla giggled. Anyway, Tracy got up and continued with her search with Kayla.

After five minutes, they saw Tracy’s father. He waved ‘hi’ too!, but he was so busy waving that he slipped and fell in the mud and became dirty and brown!

Tracy noticed something. She and her father had fallen in the mud today and turned brown.

Her detective’s brain began to work…

Jane had a brown bike and she was going slow…???

They went to Jane and Tracy asked her, “can I go near your bike?” Jane said, “yes”.

Tracy took a bucket of water and threw it over Jane’s bike. The mud was washed off the ‘brown’ bike’ and it turned blue! Kayla shouted, “that’s my bike ! ”.

Kayla started asking lots of questions.

Tracy told her, “just wait.”

She asked them if they had gone to the park that day. They both said “yes”.

The blue bike which looked like a brown bike because of the mud got mixed up with the real brown bike.

“The two bikes must have got exchanged by mistake”, said Tracy.

Jane apologized. Her bike was brown, so she got confused.

Kayla said “ok, thank god I found my bike ”. The mystery of the lost bike was solved

Chapter 2

Tracy Trim and the vanishing Christmas decorations

It was 20th December, with only five days left for Christmas. Tracy was very excited. She took one step out of the house and was very unimpressed. There were no bells, no streamers, no twinkling lights… nothing.

It was so plain.

She asked one of the decorators, what was happening. He said, “we keep on putting up the decorations, but the moment we go for a break, they disappear”.

“How strange!”, thought Tracy.

So she started investigating this mystery.

When it was time for the next break, Tracy hid behind one of the street lights. She noticed a big lorry parked along the road. She could not look inside because it was too far away… but she saw two men picking up all the decorations, loading them into the lorry and driving away.

After a little while, the decorators came back.
They started shouting that their decorations had disappeared once again.
Tracy said, “hold on… I will look for clues to solve this mystery”.

She saw streamer pieces from the decorations, lying where the truck had been parked. She noticed more pieces of torn streamers…she followed the trail which led to 34, Albany Street. She knocked on the door but there was no answer. She tried again.
This time it worked.

Inside the house, there were two men. She recognized them immediately. They were the owners of the café on the main street.

Tracy asked them, “why are you stealing the street decorations? ”

They had been caught by Tracy, so they admitted to their theft. Their café was not doing well and they had not been earning any money. So they thought that if they stole the decorations and put them up in their café, everybody would come to their café to see the decorations. They would make lots of money. At last they would be able to live their lives again.

Tracy scolded them. “You cannot steal”, she said.
She told them to apologize to everybody and to return the decorations. They were put up and the street started looking beautiful once again.
They were ready to welcome Christmas!

Chapter 3

Tracy was riding her bike when she saw Janis, Jane’s little sister.
She was learning how to play the flute. It sounded amazing. Tracy heard the beautiful sound and continued riding.

When she returned home, she went to her room, but she could not find her dog Scruffy. Both the window and the door were open. He could easily have jumped out, she thought.

She was very upset and went to the park to look for Scruffy.

There she met Jane, who was also looking for her dog Cookie, who too had disappeared.

Suddenly they saw a bush shaking. They looked down and saw Kayla behind the bush. She was looking for her dog Crunch, as well, who she could not find.

“How strange! I need to investigate this case”, said Tracy.

As they began to walk out of the park they heard a familiar tune.
Jane, Kayla, and Tracy suddenly stopped. They realized that it was the same tune that they heard this morning.

They followed the tune and it led to Jane’s house. Tracy asked, “did you leave the door and window open?” Surprisingly they said “yes”.

They went to the courtyard and saw Janis surrounded by all the dogs. Janis was playing the flute. The tune was so amazing that the dogs heard it and followed it to her house.

When the dogs saw Kayla, Jane, and Tracy, they wagged their tails in excitement and jumped into their laps. The girls were very happy to have found their dogs at last.

The mystery was solved!

Chapter 4

Tracy Trim and the Indian girl

It was Monday and the school bell was ringing. Tracy ran towards school…. she suddenly bumped into a girl. She was a new girl, who Tracy had not seen before. “Who are you?”, asked Tracy. “I am from Delhi and my name is Mira. My father has got a job here and I will be studying at Sunshine Rise School”, said Mira.

Tracy asked her why she was looking so sad. Mira said, “I have lost my teddy bear. I know I am too old for it but it has always kept me company. I have had it since I was born”. Tracy asked her what the teddy bear looked like. Mira said, “It is brown in colour and wears a bow tie”.

Mira asked Tracy if she could solve the case of the missing teddy bear.
After school, Tracy began working on the case.

She asked Mira where she had last seen the teddy bear. Mira told her that when she was walking to school, a girl named Jane jumped up from behind her and scared her with a loud hello!

Mira got so frightened that she dropped the teddy bear from her hand.

Mira said that she got distracted and forgot to pick up the teddy bear. Later when she turned around it was gone!

Tracy told Mira that Jane was her friend and whenever anyone new came to Albany, Jane would burst with excitement! Tracy said that she would talk to Jane about it.

Tracy asked Jane about the missing teddy bear. Jane said, “my sister Janis was walking behind me and she might have seen the teddy bear lying on the road and picked it up

Every day at 4’o’clock Janis used to have a tea party for her dolls and nobody was allowed to disturb her during her tea parties.
Tracy still decided to go.

Tracy knocked on the door. Janis opened it. She thought that Tracy had come for the tea party. At once, Tracy spotted the teddy bear lying on the table. Tracy asked Janis if she had found the teddy on the road.
Janis nodded her head.

Janis gave the teddy bear back to Mira…”here you go…I am sorry”, she said. Everything was sorted and the missing teddy bear was found!

Chapter 5

Tracy Trim and the Golden Pen

It was a boring day in Albany. Tracy was writing with her favorite golden pen.

Tracy’s grandmother had gifted it to her on her fifth birthday. Scruffy was sitting next to her wagging his tail.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door and she left her work to see who it was. It was Kayla!

Kayla asked Tracy if she could come out to play. Tracy thought that they might find a new case to solve…at least there would be some excitement on this boring day.

Tracy looked around for her pen …. but it was gone!
Tracy asked her parents if they had taken her Golden pen…but they said “no”.

Kayla told Tracy, “let’s just relax and go out to play and think about this mystery later”.
Tracy did not enjoy her outing at all because she kept thinking about her favorite pen. Her grandmother had told her to always look after it because it was her pen when she was a little girl.

After thirty minutes, while Tracy was walking home, she saw a boy playing with his dog. The dog reminded her of Scruffy. She suddenly remembered that when she was in her room Scruffy had rolled himself into a ball and was playing with something. She had not paid attention to what it was.

She ran back home and saw Scruffy lying on the carpet. She pushed him aside and looked under him and then under the carpet and under her desk. He must have been playing with something else she thought.

At last, she crawled under the bed to check if Scruffy had pushed it there. She saw something shining under the bed. It was her favorite Golden pen!!… but now a little chewed. Later that day her father fixed the pen for her and she was very happy to have it back!

Written by Lavanya Chopra

Lavanya Chopra is a Grade 4 student at the Shriram School, New Delhi. She is 9 yrs old now. Her detective stories were written in 2020. Her hobbies are writing short stories, poetry, and rap. Her forte is theater and she has participated in many children’s plays including online plays, produced during the pandemic and beamed over zoom. She is also training in gymnastics.

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All right reserved with LAVANYA CHOPRA
First Edition 2020 Illustration & Publishing Assistance
Vandana Haksar

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