The Scooby Doo Formula

Megan and I have discovered a series of chapter books featuring Scooby Doo. I borrow 3-4 from the library at a time (LOVE LOVE LOVE the library!) I can usually read them to her in a half hour or so. We usually split them over more than one night. There are about 30 of them, and we've read about 20 at this point.

It's fun and soothing to discover the similarities. It almost always starts out with the gang in the Mystery Machine (Scooby and Shaggy are goofing around in back). They are headed into some type of new environment / adventure. Then we meet the central character/victim ("Mom, he's not a suspect.") and several others who might mean to do him harm. ("Mom, that's a suspect!") It's fun to ask Megan why this person is a suspect. She can often list more reasons than I can.

After we've met all the suspects, some type of spooky creature appears, trying to scare people away. Often the creature appears just to Shaggy and Scooby while they are in search of food. (which they always are - Megan knows how to read the word "food" now!) The victim is upset, but Fred tells him that Mystery, Inc is "on the case!" At that point he tells his friends to "look for clues." I always tell Megan "it's time to look for _________" and she finishes with "clues".

After they find a few clues, Fred then says "Gang, it's time to _______" and Megan says excitedly "SET A TRAP!"

Scooby and Shaggy never want to participate, but Velma or Daphne offer Scooby x number of Scooby Snacks (hmm, Scooby sounds an awful lot like doobie, hmmm...) X is usually between 1 and 3 and Scooby seldom settles for 1. They toss him the snack(s), and magically Shaggy is suddenly agreeable as well.

The plan usually involves Scooby dressed up as some type of bait. It seldom goes as planned, but Scooby ends up catching the creature anyway. At which point someone pulls off the mask and the gang says "Just as we suspected." An enumeration of clues follows. I've noticed that sometimes we get more information from this listing than we had originally (last night they found a "piece of paper" which we only found out at the end was a "press pass") How do they expect us to solve the mystery without all the info??? Huh, huh?

After everything is explained, there is some type of humorous banter, followed by Scooby exclaiming "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!"

And of course, the bad guy's plan would have succeeded, "if it weren't for those meddling kids."