I don't know if you've noticed, but stand alone mystery books are a rare breed. Usually, when an author takes all the effort to create a diverting detective character, they like for the detective to get the chance to crack several mysteries. The next Brainstorm will look at some of those fun mystery series, but for today, here's some stand alone mystery books for K-12.
Picture Book Resources
Hermelin: the Detective Mouse by Mini Grey
Hermelin is a mouse. He's a mouse with a talent for typing and noticing details, which makes him a perfect candidate to solve several missing item mysteries that have happened in his apartment complex. The people he's helped are very appreciative, but are they really ready to meet their tiny hero?
For now this is a stand alone, but I would not be at all surprised if this ends up being a series. Hermelin is cute, and the ending sets him up with a partner for future adventures. Warning: This book is not the best choice for a read aloud. It is set up as a feast for the eyes, and has many disparate text boxes. It's lots of fun to look at and read by yourself.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Center: If you're a teacher who likes centers and has students old enough to read to themselves, this book would make a great center with some directional questions.
- Observation skills: Those who are paying close attention may be able to figure out the mysteries just as fast as Hermelin. Challenge readers to really look at the pictures closely and see if they can figure out what happened to the missing items.
- Prediction: Savvy readers will probably be able to predict how the people will react when they finally meet Hermelin, but will they predict the solution to that problem?
The Eleventh Hour by Graeme Base
I've mentioned this picture book
before, so I'll just remind you of it. It's my favorite mystery picture book. Also a good choice for
poetry units, as the entire book is written in rhyming quatrains.
Chapter Books
Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Emily's family is moving again. Her family's quest to live in all 50 States is starting to get a little old. It's the reason Emily usually tries not to make friends in new places. But her new neighbor James is another puzzle enthusiast and the same age, and before Emily realizes it, she's made a friend. She's not too used to this friend thing, and she might struggle with knowing how to be a good friend. Especially when she has to choose between taking time for her friendship or pursuing the next step in what she's sure is Mr. Griswold's next game. Emily's one constant in her past few moves has been her participation in Book Scavenger, a game created by Mr. Griswold where people hide books, solve puzzles to find books, of course read books, and move up the Book Scavenger sleuthing scale. When Emily and James stumble on a strange copy of Edgar Allan Poe's
Gold Bug, she's sure it is part of Mr. Griswold's new game he was about to announce when he was mugged the day her family moved to San Francisco. Is she just imagining the puzzles? Will her obsession with the game cost her her friendship with James and him a swatch of hair in his cipher contest at school? Who else is after
The Gold Bug and how far are they willing to go to get it?
Fans of
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and
Westing Game are sure to love this. Not only because Emily mentions both books, but because of the ciphers and puzzles and the great big scavenger hunt/mystery involved in the story.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Critical thinking: Mysteries are a great way to give readers some critical thinking exercise.
- Puzzles: There's several ciphers and puzzles mentioned in the book that can give readers further mental exercise. If they really like the concept, Bertman has actually created a real Book Scavenger game where people can hide and find books. Check out bookscavenger.com
- TCKs: Emily is someone third culture kids can readily identify with. The way she tries to protect herself from further emotional pain from leaving people she cares about, is a common pitfall and can hopefully help TCKs not fall into the same trap.
- Friendships take work!: This is a great book to demonstrate that friendships take work on both sides, and can segue into conversations about how to make and keep friends, how to work out differences with others in healthy ways, and the importance of forgiveness.
- Poe's Gold Bug: This tale of Poe is central to the plot line, so if you want to get kids curious about the poem prior to looking at it, this could be a good way to generate interest.
Hildy Biddle wants the truth, but the truth is hard to find in the little apple valley of Banesville. Strange things are supposedly going on in the old Ludlow house, a house with a history for dark happenings and unsolved mysteries. Suddenly, more and more people are reporting ghost sightings at the old Ludlow place, painted signs warning about danger keep popping up, and a dead man is found on the property. Fear starts to grip Banesville and property values around the Ludlow place start to plummet. Kids are scared to go outside at recess, and the town starts getting strange visitors that want a glimpse of the haunted Ludlow house. The town's newspaper, The Bee, is making sure citizens are up to date on every single detail...but Hildy Biddle is a reporter herself. She has been interviewing many of the people at the heart of this issue for her own articles in the high school's newspaper, The Core, and she starts to feel like The Bee is exaggerating or even fabricating details for some reason. Why does The Bee want the people to live in fear, and why does its editor threaten to sue the high school for the questions Hildy and the rest of The Core staff are raising?
Things get pretty tense and serious, but with the advice of veteran newspaper man Baker Polton and the encouragement of Ms Minska, cafe owner and WWII survivor, Hildy and her friends decide to fight for their town by searching for the truth that will conquer the fear and lies.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Filtering Media: In today's media saturated world, this book provides a very important lesson of evaluating media sources and not taking them at face value. It's a great opportunity to give students practical ways to evaluate their news sources, and warn them about the dangers of hype. This could easily be tied in with a lesson on how commercials and graphic design are created in ways to affect us in certain ways. A great non-fiction companion for this is Go: a Kidd's guide to graphic design by Chip Kidd.
- Writing, the Power of Words, & Bias: The plot also demonstrates the incredible power written words can have over people. Writers have a great weight of responsibility on their shoulders. This book demonstrates how the written word can be used both for good or evil, and how bias can drastically change the way "facts" are presented.
- Anyone can make a difference: Hildy and her friends are teenagers. Most people would dismiss them from being able to help save the town. Just the small act of printing facts has a profound effect on their town. Have students brainstorm small ways they can make a difference in the world.
- Critical Thinking: Can students figure out what is going on in town before the characters? Who do they trust? Why? Or who do they not trust? Why?
- A "Spooky" (Not Really) Read: This is another good pick for those students who crave "spooky" stories that turn out to have a non-spooky conclusion.
Other Stand Alone Mysteries...
A modern classic! And a Newbery winner. What do you mean you haven't read this yet?!
It's a combination of mystery and western with flavors of True Grit and Little House on the Prairie and an interesting side plot involving passenger pigeons back before they were endangered. This one won both a Newbery Honor and Edgar Award.
A bunch of lovable misfits trapped in a tricky, not-so-lovable plot make this lesser-known book both mysterious and sweet all at the same time.
A Victorian England darker humor mystery with seven young ladies out to figure out who murdered their headmistress (all the while keeping her death hushed up). This one is not for everyone, but those who like Arsenic and Old Lace should appreciate it (and even find little tips of the hat to that story).
