 Mystery: April 03, 2019 Issue [#9467] |
This week: Mystery for Kids! Edited by: eyestar~*  
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Welcome to this issue of Mystery Newsletter! I am happy to be a guest editor this week! 
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I was visiting a class of kindergarten kids who were learning about dinosaurs. I gave them a little prompt to play with: "A little mouse popped into dinosaur times and said NO!" I asked them "why" and to finish the story as it seemed like a mystery! They had a lot of fun giving what they think happened and why the mouse would say no! 
It gave me the idea to have a look at mystery stories for children in this issue.
 Most children love a good puzzle or who dun it activity even at play with "doggy doggy, whose got your bone?" or "who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?" They are curious and like to guess what will happen. Mystery stories can be fun and foster logical thinking, deductive reasoning and be great for discussing ideas and making connections. Intrigue and suspense keep them wanting to read more as well. I recall reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys as a kid and Encyclopedia Brown was one that my students enjoyed. And every kid I knew loved "Scooby Doo!" Now there are so many cool stories in this genre, for every interest!
 Mysteries for kids still have the basic mystery elements about:
relatable characters who may be in over their heads
on a problem solving quest, finding more information as they discover each clue.
Setting, plot, problem, clues revealed and a solution, with vivid description, language, a good hook, suspenseful dialogue and maybe some red herrings all create an imaginative engaging story.
Even more important for kids is to keep it moving and appealing. 
 Here are a few I have read and shared with children.
 Little ones love Richard Scarey's "The great Pie Robbery and other mysteries" where Sam Cat and Dudley Pig are sleuths on a quest. They love to dress in disguises to catch the pie thieves. It is also humourous as the pair are clueless and keep the kids engaged in the mayhem.
 Bonnie Lass wrote an entertaining "Who took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar" where Mr. Skunk confronts all of his animal friends to find out the culprit!
 Recently I read to grade 3 kids, Mark Teague's "Detective LaRue" a mystery with a series of letters, personifying a dog and his mad cap hijinks for solving a string of canary burglaries while he himself has been accused and is in doggie jail. The funny pictures and unexpected contrasts were engaging and the kids had fun trying to figure out the clues.
"7 ate 9" by Tara Lazar, is punny! But Private I is on the job in this ODD case!
 Grades 5-7 children in classes I visit enjoy Rick Riordan's "39 Clues" series that takes the characters around the world to unravel a mystery set up by their grandmother.
 Brian Selznik is a popular author with "Wonderstruck" and "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" for older kids and "Baby Monkey, Private Eye" a cute little gumshoe who loves to snack before acting on a clue and has hilarious trouble putting on pants!
 "Geronimo Stilton" series by Geronimo Stilton is very popular and engaging with its unique journal like of story with coloured words or terms highlighted and illustrations that assist the understanding. It is an adventure story with lots of mystery. The first one: "The Lost Treasure of the Emerald Eye" is where Stilton and Thea find a mysterious map. Maybe for grades 2-5.
 A classic that still holds weight as appealing is "The Boxcar Children" series by Gertrude Chandler Warren. In each book, a new mystery including one in a mystery book shop! Maybe for grades 3-5.
 "Bunnicula, a Rabbit Tale of Mystery" by Deborah and James Howe really draws kids with it fang tooth rabbit who might be a vampire! 
"The Great Mouse Detective, Basil of Baker Street:, has a Sherlock Holmes type mouse solving a mousenapping. The clues are not easily found! It is written by Eve Titus.
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat has written wonderful mystery series you may be familiar with: "Nate the Great" with his Sam spade outfit and checklists and "The Olivia Sharp: Agent for the Secrets" who gets to the underneath of things that happen!
 Some older kids in passing told me they really liked the story "Holes", 1998 young adult novel written by Louis Sachar, dealing with mystery and issues that effect a boy's life and ours.
Also they liked "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and "Harry Potter" with its magic and mystery.
 I have heard it is not easy to write mystery and mystery for children can be even more of a challenge, so kudos to all of the authors who have brought this genre to life for our young folks!
 Have you written a bit of mystery for children? I would love to Know about it. I might even have the chance to share your work with some kids on my path. Did you have a favourite mystery as a child?
Thanks for reading!
eyestar
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Now, did you have a favourite mystery from childhood? Please share! Have you written a mystery for children? Please share so I can post them here next time! 
Thank You for your comments on my last Mystery Newsletter! "Mystery Newsletter (February 6, 2019)" I am glad I could offer something useful.
DB Cooper
This is really cool.
Thank you.
Quick-Quill 
This was a fun NL. It cleared up something I'd mistaken. I thought, for some unknown reason, Dean Koontz wrote COMA. I had to look it up and found it was written by Robin Cook. Close, they both have 'oo' in their names. I love a good mystery, but the label MYSTERY as in WDC encompasses so many sub-genre that finding a book that's written to interest me often isn't rewarding. I don't want a KOZY mystery about a bunch of Knitters or book club women solving crimes in their towns. I want an where is it at? Who put it there? A treasure hunt, a missing family heirloom that has some soon to be revealed history. It's what I write its what I want to read. If you have a book or story like that contact me.
Thanks.
Christopher Roy Denton 
Informative analysis of the genre. Thank you. Also, thank you for plugging my short story, Malaco
You are welcome!
Joy 
What an excellent listing of the categories, eyestar~* !
Although they come up in book groups every now and then, I haven't seen the mystery genre categorized with such focus. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Maineiac
Quick observation: An often overlooked genre is "Flash Fiction". It is a real challenge for a writer to incorporate ll of the elements of a good mystery into a very brief framework. When successful the result can be excellent.
Great comment and it would be a real challenge. Have you one to share?}
CJ and Muse
Seeing Newsletters like this makes me want to pick up work on my vampire/detective book (based on an assignment from school, an unconventional ss)... but I have so many other projects I'm working on I don't think it is doable right now - got to breathe/sleep a some point
Cool!
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