"Dot & Jabber and the Great Acorn Mystery"
by Ellen Stoll Walsh
Informational fiction tells a make-believe story, but it also gives facts
and information that is true.
Dot and Jabber are mouse detectives. They needed a mystery to
solve. And so Dot asked what a little oak tree was doing in the
meadow. Oak trees come from acorns, he said, but how did the acorn
get here? It was a mystery.
They went looking for the oak tree. They looked down a hole and
found a mole. The mole said to try the other side of the meadow.
They wondered how the acorn got across the meadow. Jabber
thought it might have walked. Then he started to wonder about maple
seeds instead. Dot told him there is no mystery in maple seeds. They
have a wing and twirl in the wind. Jabber wondered if their acorn rode
the wind too.
They found the oak tree. Under it were lots of acorns. Jabber wanted
to eat them, but Dot said they were clues. One acorn fell. Jabber said
it was too heavy to go anywhere. None of the acorns were going
anywhere.
Just then a squirrel came and sat among the acorns. They watched
him put an acorn in his mouth. Then he ran away. They ran after him.
They watched as he dug a hole. He was hiding the acorn.
Dot said that the acorn got across the meadow on squirrel feet.
Jabber said that it got planted by squirrel feet too.
They had solved the mystery.
Before they looked for another mystery to solve, they went back to
the acorns. Good clues could also make good food.