ALA Booklist (Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2002)

On the first day of school, the police come into the classroom and arrest Cam's teacher for leaving the scene of an accident. But as always in Adler's lively, easy-to-read, chapter-book mysteries, Cam uses her photographic memory to find important clues and save the day. The twenty-second book in the popular series, this is one of the best, from the opening scene on the school bus stuck in traffic to Cam's clever discovery of a dry-cleaning ticket that leads her to the criminal. With the informal storytelling and the immediacy of the scenarios, this is sure to draw beginning readers to the pleasure of mystery stories with a protagonist close to home.

Horn Book (Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 CST 2003)

It's the first day of school, and Cam Jansen, the girl detective with the photographic memory, lands in the principal's office for passing notes. But it's all in the name of good detective work, as the fifth-grader rushes to exonerate her new teacher, who's suspected of leaving the scene of an accident. A loudmouth classmate injects some mild humor into this tame mystery, which is illustrated with black-and-white drawings.

School Library Journal

Gr 2-4-A disappointing addition to the series. On the way to the first day of fifth grade, Cam and Eric's school bus is stopped in a traffic tie-up caused by a car crash a few blocks away from school. Later, their teacher is taken away by the police, accused of leaving the scene of the accident. Using her photographic memory, Cam is able to establish that Ms. Benson was not driving her car at the time of the accident. Her memory also points toward the clue that identifies the thief, who was driving. Neither of the "clues" provided by Cam could have been overlooked by even the densest police inquiry. It also strains credulity that the officers would confront a teacher in front of her class and that the principal would then leave the children unattended while she arranged for a sub.-Lisa Smith, Lindenhurst Memorial Library, NY Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.