Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver & H. C. Chester

• Genre: Mystery/Fantasy
• Grade Level: 4th - 6th 
• Reading Level: 5.2
• Length: 384 pages (10 hours)
• Publisher: Harper Collins (September 29, 2015)
• My Rating: 3 out of 4
• Division: 2

The Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head is a first book in a series of orphan/mystery stories. The setting is in the early 1900's in New York City in a curiosity and wonders museum.  There are all kinds of unusual things to look at as well as a performance show with lots of entertainment. There are four orphan children who live at the home who also perform: a strong boy, a girl who can see what is in pockets, a boy who can bend his body like a contortionist, and a girl who can throw knives.  A fat lady, a dwarf, a magician, and a few others round out the show.  

One day a new shrunken head is unveiled at a show.  A woman faints when she sees it and later dies at the hospital. The newspaper reporter writes a dramatic article about this cursed head and business flourishes.  But then the head is stolen and murders start to happen until the mystery is solved by the four orphan characters. 

This book is like a combination of  A Series of Unfortunate Events and Sherlock Holmes mysteries. I was surprised that there was so much murder and mayhem in a grade 4th - 6th grade book.  I wasn't sure I wanted to finish this one since I had a stack to read that seemed more appealing.  (That is always a bad sign!) However, it turned out that it was worth finishing and I did enjoy it. It doesn't make me want to read the next book though.  Perhaps the characters were not developed in a way that made me pull for them.  There were quite a few of them and I did need to sort them out from time to time.  The illustrations were good.  I wish they went along with the story line better. Some of them seemed to be randomly placed in the book. It was a good read but not my favorite.