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Understanding Genres in Children's Literature: Mysteries

This guide is intended to help users understand the different genres in children's literature

What are Mysteries?

Mystery Book Trailer

White Smoke   Click on the image to view this title in the ECU catalog 

Author: Tiffany D. Jackson 

Grade Level: 8 - 12

Call Number: F J138W

Description: The phantoms of her old life keep haunting Marigold, but a move with her newly blended family from their California beach town to the Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper. The renovated home on Maple Street has secrets. Household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there is a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse, Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone. Cedarville has its secrets, too. And secrets always find their way through the cracks. -- adapted from jacket.

Example Mystery Titles in the TRC Collection

Young Cam Jansen and the New Girl Mystery

Young Cam Jansen and the New Girl Mystery

Call Number: E AD59Y10

Description: This time Cam Jansen relies on her hearing rather than her photographic memory to find a missing classmate.

 

King & Kayla and the case of found Fred

King & Kayla and the case of found Fred

Call Number: E B97663KI05

Description:  "Trying to communicate with his human owner (and detective partner) can be frustrating for King the golden retriever as he uncovers clues in a missing dog case."

7 Ate 9: the untold story

7 Ate 9: the untold story

Call Number: E L456S

Description: When 7 is accused of eating 9, worried 6 hires a detective to investigate.

Secret Agent Splat!

Secret Agent Splat!

Call Number: E SCO879SE

Description: "Splat notices that his favorite wooden ducks keep going missing--can Secret Agent Splat solve the mystery?" Provided by publisher

The Mona Lisa Vanishes: a legendary painter, a shocking heist, and the birth of a global celebrity

The Mona Lisa Vanishes: a legendary painter, a shocking heist, and the birth of a global celebrity

Call Number: 364.1628 D3329M

Description: "On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, La Joconde, c'est partie! The Mona Lisa, she's gone! No one knew who was behind the heist. Was it an international gang of thieves? Was it an art-hungry American millionaire? Was it the young Spanish painter Pablo Picasso, who was about to remake the very art of painting? Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves--and detectives--of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa--the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all" Publisher's description

Firekeeper's Daughter

Firekeeper's Daughter

Call Number: F B664F

Description:  Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in, either in her hometown or on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. She dreams of college, but when her family is struck by tragedy she puts her future on hold to care for her fragile mother. The only bright spot is meeting Jamie, a new recruit on her brother Levi's hockey team. When Daunis witnesses a shocking murder, she reluctantly agrees to go undercover, drawing on her knowledge of chemistry and Ojibwe traditional medicine to track down the source of a new drug. How far will she go to protect her community, if it threatens to tear apart the only world she's ever known? -- adapted from jacket

Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring

Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring

Call Number: F C33735M

Description: When Lizzie and Gael share an irresistible challenge, to find the peacock ring that once belonged to artist Frida Kahlo, Paloma decides it is the perfect way to honor her father.

The Chicken Squad

The Chicken Squad

Call Number: F C8816C

Description: When the squirrel Tail comes barreling into the chicken coop ranting about a round, shiny, green, big, scary thing in the yard, Dirt, Sweetie, Poppy, and Sugar investigate this strange object.

The Secret Letters

The Secret Letters

Call Number: F H1173MY01

Description: "When Colin finds a shoebox full of letters hidden in a stranger's attic, he knows he's supposed to throw them away. That's his summer job, getting rid of junk. But Colin wants to rescue the letters--and find out what really happened to best friends Rosemary and Toby way back in the 1970s. Meanwhile, across town, Nevaeh also finds a mysterious letter. But this one reads like a confession to a crime. And Nevaeh knows her father, the 'Junk King,' expects her to join the rest of the family in blaming a single suspect: his business rival, Colin's mom."-- Front jacket flap 

The Weight of Blood

The Weight of Blood

Call Number: F J138WE

Description:  "When Springville residents--at least the ones still alive--are questioned about what happened on prom night, they all have the same explanation... Maddy did it. An outcast at her small-town Georgia high school, Madison Washington has always been a teasing target for bullies. And she's dealt with it because she has more pressing problems to manage. Until the morning a surprise rainstorm reveals her most closely kept secret: Maddy is biracial. She has been passing for white her entire life at the behest of her fanatical white father, Thomas Washington. After a viral bullying video pulls back the curtain on Springville High's racist roots, student leaders come up with a plan to change their image: host the school's first integrated prom as a show of unity. The popular white class president convinces her Black superstar quarterback boyfriend to ask Maddy to be his date, leaving Maddy wondering if it's possible to have a normal life. But some of her classmates aren't done with her just yet. And what they don't know is that Maddy still has another secret... one that will cost them all their lives"--Dust jacket flap.

 

Website Resources for Mystery Genre