Monday, May 2, 2011

10 Great Mysteries for Kids


I'm a big fan of adult mysteries and read them all the time. Reading kid mysteries for this blog was fun. I know I'll want to write about mysteries again - I want to do more research!
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Dirk Bones and the Mystery of the Haunted House by Doug Cushman
Dirk Bones is a newspaper reporter. He’s also a skeleton. When a family of ghosts fears that they are being haunted, Dirk investigates. Watch out for the bubbling vat of bat foot stew with crispy worm brains! There’s at least one more book in this series.
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Hamster and Cheese by Colleen AF Venable
I love this book! It’s a graphic novel and the first of the Pet Shop Private Eye series. I giggled all the way through it. While I was reading, I kept wishing it was around a few years ago when I had a particularly fun group of fifth graders. Check it out!
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The Case of the Disappearing Daughter by Barbara Mitchelhill 
Damian Drooth decides the life of a supersleuth is for him. After a couple of embarrassing mistakes, he finally has a mission to prove his worth. This is the first book of the Damian Drooth, Supersleuth series.
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Spying on Dracula and Dracula Madness by Mary Labatt
These books tell the same story. The first book is part of the Sam: Dog Detective series. It's written entirely in words. The second book is part of the Sam and Friends Mystery series. It's a graphic novel. The story is well told, in very different ways. I enjoyed reading both of them.
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A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce
This book is quite odd. It tells about the Robinsons and their very peculiar home and family. It’s hard to explain but there are cannons, matter detectors, false teeth and a bunch of other weird stuff. Fun!
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The Absent Author by Ron Roy
Dink Duncan and his two friends investigate the kidnapping of a famous mystery author. I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting to like this first book of the A to Z Mystery series. For some reason, I thought it would be lame. Silly me. This book is a good mystery and it’s well told. I look forward to reading more of the series.
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The Fenway Foul-up by David A. Kelly
Cousins Mike and Kate are watching batting practice at Fenway Park when Red Sox slugger Big D's lucky bat is stolen. Mike and Kate rush to find the bat before the Sox lose the game. This mystery offers clues along the way and you might be able to figure things out before Mike and Kate do. It's part of the Ball Park Mysteries series. 
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The Mystery of King Karfu by Doug Cushman
This story is told in diary form with lots of pictures – it’s almost a graphic novel. Detective Seymour Sleuth (a wombat) and his assistant Muggs (a mouse) travel to Egypt to search for a missing stone chicken. I loved figuring out the clues as they came up in the story and often checked back in the pictures to be sure I hadn’t missed anything.  
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The Strange Case of Origami Yoda by Tom Angleberger
This book has a higher reading level than the other books I’ve recommended. But since it is such a great book, I hope you’ll try it. You can see if it’s a comfortable read for you and if it isn’t, try to sweet talk someone into making it a read-aloud. Or, get it as an audio book. It’s that good – definitely worth checking out.
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What are your favorite mysteries? Write them in the Comments box!
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Gail

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