The key to getting junior age kids to read is to find a book so exciting that they can’t bear to put it down. Mystery books are packed with thrills and surprises that will keep children turning the pages to see what happens next. Here are four classic mystery series that will appeal to girls and boys between the ages of nine and thirteen.
The Three Investigators
Penned by numerous authors, this junior age series has entertained young readers for over thirty years now. Its three protagonists, Jupiter Jones, Bob Andrews, and Pete Crenshaw reside in the fictional town of Rocky Beach, where they solve cases that have baffled even the experts. Jupiter is the genius of the group, a former child actor who astonishes adults with his extensive vocabulary and obscure bits of knowledge. Bob is the research expert and Pete is the athletic one. The boys run their detective agency out of a mobile home that lies hidden among the rows of junk at the Jones’s salvage yard. The Three Investigators tackle over forty something mysteries, many of them quite unusual, such as The Screaming Clock, The Singing Serpent, and The Crooked Cat.
Trixie Belden
Here’s a very entertaining series for girls who are still too young to appreciate the Nancy Drew books. Thirteen year-old Trixie Belden is the smart and likable heroine who solves nearly forty mysteries with the help of her friends and siblings. Book one, The Secret of the Mansion, teams Trixie with her future sidekick, Honey Wheeler, a shy rich girl whose family moves into the grand house next door to the Belden farm. Sweet, artistic Violet is Trixie’s other sleuthing buddy. Occasionally joining in to help the three girls are Trixie’s brothers, Brian, Mart, and Bobby.
The Spotlight Club
Boys and girls alike will enjoy following the adventures of Cindy, Jay, and Dexter in this series of mystery books penned by mother-daughter writing team Florence Parry Heide and Roxanne Heide Pierce. Cindy and Jay are brother and sister and Dexter is their next door neighbor and sleuthing buddy. The kids have exciting and unusual adventures as they solve cases in books such as The Mystery of the Missing Suitcase, Mystery of the Midnight Message, and Mystery at Southport Cinema.
The Boxcar Children
Written by Gertrude Chandler Warner, this long-lived mystery series boasts over a hundred titles that will likely appeal to both boys and girls. The first book, titled simply The Boxcar Children, introduces the main characters, Henry, Jessie, Violet, and Benny Alden. Newly orphaned, the four kids decide to strike out on their own rather than live with the grandfather they’ve mistakenly come to believe is a cruel and dangerous man. They make a home for themselves in an abandoned boxcar and work various jobs to support themselves. Of course, this can’t last forever, and a crisis inevitably occurs to unite the kids with their grandfather who is actually a very kind---and very wealthy man.
Books to Keep Kids Reading Through the Teen Years
Kids who enjoy the above listed titles will likely appreciate similar series as they grow older. The authors of the Spotlight Club books also penned the Brillstone mystery series, which features a seventeen year- old sleuthing heroine named Liza. Older kids may also enjoy the classic Hardy Boys mysteries, as well as the Nancy Drew books.
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