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Busytown Mysteries

  • Is it age appropriate?

    About our ratings

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    Not age appropriate for kids under 0, age appropriate for kids over 0; suggested age 3.

  • Is it any good?

    4.0

  • Common Sense says

    Richard Scarry's beloved characters solve kid-size queries.

Themes in this show include:   friendship

Why We Rated This on for Ages 3 and Up

The good stuff

  • Educational value:

    The series introduces preschoolers to basic scientific concepts like gathering clues, analyzing data, and creating a hypothesis. Sometimes the content allows for additional learning -- as when a mystery at the beach prompted the characters to learn about changing tide levels.

  • Messages:

    The show promotes teamwork and critical thinking -- the characters hypotheses about the mysteries often turn out to be wrong, but they always learn from them and never treat anyone’s ideas disrespectfully.

  • Role models:

    Huckle and his friends sometimes have disagreements, but they handle them politely. They’re always courteous and make amends when they’ve done something wrong. The young characters often turn to knowledgeable adults when they have a question about how things work.
 

What to watch out for

  • Violence & scariness:

    Not an issue.

  • Sexy stuff:

    Not an issue.

  • Language:

    Not an issue.

  • Consumerism:

    Not an issue.

  • Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

    Not an issue.
 

What Parents Need to Know

About Busytown Mysteries

Parents need to know that this preschool series stars the characters of Richard Scarry’s beloved children’s books. As the young characters solve mysteries, they encourage kids to think critically about the world around them and introduce them to basic scientific concepts like making observations, analyzing evidence, and testing theories. Huckle and his friends always demonstrate admirable traits like kindness, respect, and sincerity. In other words, this show is a great choice for preschoolers -- and perhaps even their parents, who might remember Scarry’s characters (in book form, anyway) from their own childhood.

Did this review help you decide?

Families Can Talk About

  • Families can talk about how the characters solve each mystery. What steps do they take to get from a question to a solution? Do they ever reach an incorrect conclusion? What do they do then?
  • How do friends and teammates help each other? If a friend is having a bad day, what do you do? Why is it important to show your friends that you respect them?
  • Kids: How does this series compare to Richard Scarry’s books? Do you think they look pretty similar? Are the characters how you pictured they’d be when you read the books? What are some of your other favorite shows based on books?
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