Bookshelf: Kids' Mystery Books

Have I mentioned how much we love to read?  When we go to the library, we check out lots of picture books (like those by Mo Willems), but we also enjoy children's mysteries.  Although our boys are still learning letter recognition and are at the very beginning stages that will lead to reading, we have found that many of the early reader books are perfect for their attention level and curiosity.  The mysteries they like most are those that contain 3 or 4 chapters, where each chapter is an individual problem-solution case.  However, there are a number of series where the entire book of 4 chapters contains a single story line- those are great for Jason, but Jackson tends to wander off before the end.

The short mysteries we currently love were all found at our local library.  If you click on the pictures, you can find more information on Amazon:

The Detective Dinosaur stories are my absolute favorite of these: 

"Meow," said the paper bag. . . . "A snake!" he cried. 

My boys squeal with delight every single time we read this story! They cannot contain themselves until the page is turned before they yell out, "No!  It's a kitty!"

Jason was drawn to Aunt Eater's Mystery Halloween just as he is drawn to all Halloween books, all year long.  It is great to see how, after a few readings, the boys really notice foreshadowing details, and they begin to anticipate the plot twists.




High Rise Private Eyes expands the clever, simple mystery story to allow a number of chapters for each mystery.  There are more people involved and more clues, but it is still a short story just the right size for kids.






Nate the Great is a series of mystery books for beginning readers.  The series started in the 70's, and are still being written today.  Jason loves these stories, but Jackson is usually not engaged enough to sit through the entire book.  There are false leads, too many or too few clues, but there are always pancakes involve.  Nate the Great loves pancakes.