Deb­bie Ja­cob

Mys­ter­ies are a great way to get boys-and girls-to read. They're fast-paced, and that's im­por­tant in this vi­su­al world. What's more im­por­tant, mys­ter­ies are a way to build crit­i­cal read­ing and an­a­lyt­i­cal skills. El­e­men­tary stu­dents are gen­er­al­ly ea­ger to read an ex­cit­ing mys­tery. That's part­ly be­cause mys­ter­ies feel like es­cape lit­er­a­ture.

Once again, it's im­por­tant to re­alise that even the youngest read­ers look for the same lit­er­ary el­e­ments that we ex­pect in a great read. They want mem­o­rable char­ac­ters, ex­cit­ing con­flicts that hope­ful­ly re­late to our lives in some way. As a li­brar­i­an, I'm al­ways look­ing for good mys­ter­ies. These are some of the best mys­ter­ies I have col­lect­ed over the last two years.

Re­mem­ber, read­ing mys­ter­ies to younger stu­dents is a good way to build an­a­lyt­i­cal skills as well. Christ­mas is com­ing, and par­ents are al­ways ask­ing me to sug­gest good books for chil­dren-es­pe­cial­ly boys.

Here is my list of good mys­ter­ies for younger chil­dren:

1 The Tri­al of Cardi­gan Jones by Tim Egan: This is one of my favourite books in my school li­brary be­cause of the in­valu­able lessons it teach­es. Cardi­gan Jones is put on tri­al for the case of a miss­ing pie. Dur­ing the course of the tri­al, im­por­tant ev­i­dence emerges. As it turns out, Cardi­gan didn't steal the pie. He sim­ply knocked it off the ledge be­cause he is clum­sy.

This book teach­es chil­dren about fair­ness and why it's im­por­tant not to rush to judg­ment. Old­er chil­dren can stage a tri­al so they learn about the ju­di­cia­ry sys­tem. One year, ca­lyp­so ex­pert Ray Funk put Goldilocks on tri­al in our el­e­men­tary school. It was great fun. (For chil­dren five to eight years old).

2 The 5,000-Year-old Puz­zle-Solv­ing a Mys­tery of An­cient Egypt: Writ­ten in post­cards and a di­ary form, this sto­ry teach­es stu­dents from eight to 11 about his­to­ry and putting clues to­geth­er. Stu­dents are al­so ex­posed to dif­fer­ent nar­ra­tive styles. This book is very vi­su­al and that makes it quite ap­peal­ing in this vi­su­al age where even young chil­dren play games and surf the in­ter­net.

3 Mys­tery at the Club Sand­wich by Doug Cush­man: This hu­mor­ous mys­tery teach­es chil­dren about tone. An ele­phant de­tec­tive named Nick Trunk gets plen­ty of work be­cause he works for peanuts. The mys­tery is filled with puns and metaphors and teach­es stu­dents how to use po­et­ic de­vices in fic­tion. The il­lus­tra­tions are live­ly and they're all in black and white. Mys­tery at the Club Sand­wich is for read­ers from six to eight.

4 Misty Gor­don and the Mys­tery of the Ghost Pi­rates by Kim Kennedy: Ad­ven­ture, mys­tery, pi­rates, his­to­ry and mythol­o­gy abound in this nov­el with a hero­ine who finds a pair of glass­es when she vis­its the home of a de­ceased clair­voy­ant.

When Misty Gor­don puts on the glass­es, she dis­cov­ers she has an ex­tra­or­di­nary abil­i­ty to solve mys­ter­ies.

This ex­cit­ing read will ap­peal to girls and boys from eight through 12. Misty Gor­don is chap­ter book for stu­dents to delve in­to dif­fer­ent gen­res.

5 The Se­cret of the Sealed Room A Mys­tery of Young Ben­jamin Franklin by Bai­ley Mac­Don­ald: This his­tor­i­cal mys­tery takes place in Boston in 1721. When a teenage in­den­tured ser­vant, Pa­tience Mar­tin, runs away af­ter her em­ploy­er, Mrs Worth, dies-she soon dis­cov­ers she is in more trou­ble than she thinks. Peo­ple are say­ing that Mrs Worth has been poi­soned and every­one sus­pects Pa­tience. This mys­tery is writ­ten for read­ers 11 to 14.

6 Holes by Louis Sachar: This award-win­ning chil­dren's mys­tery about ju­ve­nile delin­quents who are put in­to the desert to dig holes is a spell­bind­ing read. There's a movie to go along with it, and a se­quel called Small Steps. Louis Sachar writes for young read­ers from six to 14.

7 Van­ished by Sheela Chari: An 11-year-old girl is dev­as­tat­ed when a mu­si­cal in­stru­ment she in­her­it­ed from her grand­moth­er goes miss­ing. As she tries to track down the cul­prit, Neela dis­cov­ers a strange sto­ry about the in­stru­ment. Then she must fig­ure out why it keeps dis­ap­pear­ing. This nov­el is for read­ers 11 to 14.

8 Ice­fall by Matthew J Kir­by: This is one of those Young Adult nov­els (read­ers 12 and up) that can be equal­ly en­joyed by an adult. In a far­away king­dom, a crown prince and his sis­ter are left in a se­cret cave while a bat­tle goes on that will de­ter­mine the fate of the king­dom. While the chil­dren strug­gle to make it through a cold win­ter, they be­gin to sus­pect that there is a spy among them will­ing to sell them out.

The chil­dren's lives de­pend on them find­ing out who the turn­coat is.

9 Bold­ly the Trips by Roy Galt: This sus­pense­ful mys­tery nov­el, set in Trinidad and To­ba­go, is an en­gag­ing read for young reads 11 to 14. When three pre­co­cious boys em­bark on a mis­sion of re­venge they find them­selves en­tan­gled with some un­savoury char­ac­ters. The Trips are in deep­er trou­ble than they think if they can't fig­ure out who these crim­i­nals are and what they're re­al­ly do­ing.

When it comes to read­ing, mys­ter­ies are win­ners every time.