Skip to main content

Five Faves: Mysteries for Younger

October is a great time to read a mystery! These picture book mysteries are the perfect way to introduce young readers to the genre, just in time for spooky season.

Written by Josh Funk
Illustrated by Brendan Kearney
New York: Union Square Kids, 2022. Picture Book.

Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast wake up one day to find that the Great Light in the refrigerator is missing! As they trace the light to Las Veggies, Pancake and French Toast must enlist all their friends to retrieve the bulb from Caper and his vegetable henchmen!

Written Josh Crute
Illustrated by Jenn Harney
Salem, MA: Page Street Kids, 2021. Picture Book.

When Deer wakes up and realizes that one of his antlers has been stolen and replaced with a tennis racquet, he panics! Racing around to his friends in the woods, they each realize in turn that they have all been hornswoggled, bamboozled, skunked! Wacky words are used and defined as the animals try to solve the mystery of the missing items. 

Written by Eddie Muller and Jessica Schmidt
Illustrated by Forrest Burdett
Philadelphia, PA: Running Press Kids, 2023. Picture Book.

When hard-boiled private investigator Kitty Feral's partner Mitch the Mutt goes missing, the cat faces dead end after dead end. Deciding to take on a second, potentially connected case of a missing candy shipment, Kitty interrogates the "usual suspects" to get to the bottom of the disappearances and save Mitch and the candy from the bandits. The case gives young readers an introduction to noir and detective fiction tropes and vocabulary, and an afterword gives more information on the noir genre's origins.

By Albert ArrayƔs
Boisbriand, Quebec: CrackBoom! Books, 2021. Picture Book.

Chickens are beloved and revered in Chickentown, and every year the hens compete for the Golden Feather award for the best hen of the year. A few days before the competition, hens start disappearing mysteriously, with a set of clues pointing to the culprit. The local witch and her hen set out to find the kidnapper, though it may not be who you expect!

By Christie Matheson
Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2024. Picture Book.

In this fall mystery, when a group of mice goes missing, the squirrels in the forest set out to figure out what happened to them! As each successive group of animals appears and is investigated, they are introduced with the collective noun for that animal.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Painting for Peace in Ferguson

Painting for Peace in Ferguson By Carol Swartout Klein Treehouse Publishing Group, 2015. Nonfiction. When the city of Ferguson was overrun with so much hate and despair that homes and businesses had to be boarded up to protect property, citizens of the community decided to bring a message of hope by painting the boarded windows. Klein’s rhyming text supports the photographs of the hundreds of artists and volunteers and their artwork as they bring the messages of peace, hope, love, and that by being united they can make a difference. A great book to show children how a community rallied to make a positive change and that even a small gesture can make a huge difference. A great discussion opener on how we should treat each other.

Dragon Run

Dragon Run by Patrick Matthews Scholastic, 2013.  336 pgs.  Fantasy      Al Pilgrommor is excited for Testing Day, when he will receive his rank, a tattooed number on the back of his neck, and a path forward to his future occupation and life.  He feels confident because his parents were fours on a scale of seven, but he is worried for his friend Wisp who doesn't have much of a chance of scoring above a two at best. But when Al is scored a zero, he not only has no prospects, he may lose his life as the dreaded Cullers are unleashed to kill him and his family to purify the land's bloodlines.  Al's world is ruled by dragons--the lords and supposed creators of humankind--so he thinks that even if he survives, he will have to make his living as a beggar or thief. But when Al sticks up for his Earther friend in front of Magister Ludi, he is drawn into the struggle of a secret organization hoping to destroy the Cullers, and perhaps the dragons them...

Review: Growing Home

Growing Home Written by Beth Ferry Illustrated by The Fan Brothers New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. Fiction. 261 pages. This book has some entertaining characters! We get to read about Toasty, the goldfish who loves to eat cheese puffs, Ivy, a plant with magical powers, and Arthur, the spider who ends up with a broken leg. Jillian is the main human character in the book. She loves Toasty and Ivy, and would probably love Arthur, too, but she doesn't know about him....yet. Her parents own an antique shop, but they are facing some economic hardship.  This charming story is about magic, teamwork, and friendship. I loved that there were all kinds of shenanigans happening. While we are on a journey where the fish, the plant, the spider, and the girl are working to solve one mystery after another, the author beautifully guides us to the realization that words are powerful, friendships can heal hearts, and books have their own magic power to help in all kinds ...