Ages 9 –13

J AIKEN
Aiken, Joan. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase: The story is about two young cousins, ravenous
wolf packs roaming the countryside, and a wicked governess. When Bonnie’s parents leave for a
sea voyage, Bonnie and Sylvia are at the mercy of an evil governess. She takes over the family
mansion and sends Bonnie and Sylvia to a horrible "school" for orphans.

J BACCALA
Baccalario, Pierdomenic. The Door to Time: After moving from London to an old mansion on the
English coast, eleven-year-old twins Jason and Julia discover that their new home has twisting
tunnels, strange artifacts from around the world, and a mysterious, locked door. (Series: Ulysses
Moore)

J BAILEY
Bailey, Linda. How Can a Brilliant Detective Shine in the Dark?: "Stevie attends a family reunion
and a gigantic mystery unfolds - involving a hidden cave, missing gold and maybe a murder. Readers
will enjoy this exciting, page-turning adventure." Cf. Our choice, 2000.

J BALLIETT
Balliett, Blue. Chasing Vermeer: When strange and seemingly unrelated events start to happen
and a precious Vermeer painting disappears, eleven-year-olds Petra and Calder combine their talents
to solve an international art scandal.
J BALLIETT
Balliett, Blue. The Calder Game: When seventh-grader Calder Pillay disappears from a remote
English village--along with an Alexander Calder sculpture to which he has felt strangely drawn--his
friends Petra and Tommy fly from Chicago to help his father find him.

YA BLACKWOOD
Blackwood, Gary. The Shakespeare Stealer: A young orphan boy is ordered by his master to
infiltrate Shakespeare’s acting troupe in order to steal the script of "Hamlet," but he discovers instead
the meaning of friendship and loyalty.

J BROACH
Broach, Elise. Shakespeare's Secret: Named after a character in a Shakespeare play, misfit sixth-
grader Hero becomes interested in exploring this unusual connection because of a valuable diamond
supposedly hidden in her new house, an intriguing neighbor, and the unexpected attention of the
most popular boy in school
J BROACH
Broach, Elise. Masterpiece: After Marvin, a beetle, makes a miniature drawing as an eleventh
birthday gift for James, a human with whom he shares a house, the two new friends work together to
help recover an Albrecht Dürer drawing stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

J BRUCHAC
Bruchac, Joseph. Skeleton Man: After her parents mysteriously disappear, Molly takes care of
herself for a couple of days, until Social Services places her in the care of a great uncle who begins
to do strange things, like locking her in her room every evening in his spooky house, and making
many trips out to a tool shed. Molly begins to have weird dreams and they may prove to be prophetic
as she decides to investigate the tool shed, and is much surprised by what she finds.

J BROOKS
Brooks, Walter. Freddy the Detective: Rats are stealing grain, Everett's toy train is missing, and
goats have gobbled a lace tablecloth right off the clothesline. Fortunately, Freddy the Pig is eager to
tackle the barnyard crimes.

J CHILD
Child, Laura. Utterly Me Clarice Bean: Clarice doesn’t like being an only child and knows that her
life would be better if she had a helicopter and a butler, like Ruby Redfort, the hero of her favorite
books. So when someone steals the winner's trophy for the school book project, Clarice becomes a
detective to solve the mystery.

YA COLFER
Colfer, Eoin. Half Moon Investigations: Twelve-year-old private investigator Fletcher Moon,
nicknamed “Half Moon” because of his shortness, must track down a conspiracy or be framed for a
crime he did not commit.

J CURTIS
Christopher, Paul Curtis. Mr. Chickee's Funny Money: Flint Future Detective Club members
Steven Carter, his friend Russell, and Russell's huge dog Zoopy solve the mystery of a quadrillion-
dollar bill with the image of James Brown on it.

J CLEMENTS
Clements, Andrew. Room One: a Mystery or Two: A shrinking school in a dying town, a face in the
window of an empty house. At first these facts don't seem to be related. But Ted Hammond learns
that in a very small town, there's no such thing as an isolated event. In this fast-paced story the
solution to one mystery is often the beginning of another.

J DEFELIC
DeFelic, Cynthi. The Missing Manatee: While coping with his parents' separation, eleven-year-old
Skeet spends most of Spring Break in his skiff on a Florida river, where he finds a manatee shot to
death and begins looking for the killer.

J FREEMAN
Freeman, Martha. Who Stole Halloween?: When nine-year-old Alex and his friend Yasmeen
investigate the disappearance of cats in their neighborhood, they stumble onto a larger mystery
involving a haunted house and a ghostly cat.
J HADDIX
Haddix, Margaret Peterson. The House on the Gulf: A sixteen-year-old boy arranges a
housesitting job for the summer, but he starts acting strangely after his family moves in, and his sister
begins to suspect they are not supposed to be there.

J HAMILTON
Hamilton, Virginia. The House of Dies Drear: A black family of five moves into an enormous house
once used as a hiding place for runaway slaves. Mysterious sounds and events as well as the
discovery of secret passageways make the family believe they are in grave danger.

J HIAASEN
Hiaasen, Carl. Hoot: Roy, who has just moved from the west to a small Florida community,
becomes involved in another boy's attempt to save a colony of burrowing owls from a proposed
construction site. The story is full of quirky characters, like an eco-terrorist, a tough tire-chomping girl
and some alligators who camp out in outhouses.

YA JENNING
Jennings, Richard. Mystery in Mt. Mole: While twelve-year-old Andrew J. Forrest searches for Mr.
Farley, the very unpopular assistant principal at Mt. Mole Middle School, strange things are
happening on the town's namesake hill.

J KARBO
Karbo, Karen. Minerva Clark Goes to the Dogs: A thirteen-year-old sleuth in Portland, Oregon,
tries to uncover a missing red diamond and gets herself mixed up with a crooked animal shelter
worker and some very strange animals. (Check out other Minerva Clark books.)

J KEHRET
Kehret, Peg. The Stranger Next Door: A clever cat's heroism helps two twelve-year-old boys
become friends after their families, one of which is in a witness protection program, move to
neighboring houses in Hilltop, Washington. (Sequels are Spy Cat & Trapped)

J 364 LANE
Lane, Brian. Crime & Detection: A fascinating book full of information about crimes, criminals and
the tools of crime detection.

J MORTON-SHAW
Morton-Shaw, Christine. The Hunt for the Seventh: When his father starts a new job at Minerva
Hall as gardener, twelve-year-old Jim discovers an ancient curse that needs to be unraveled before
disaster happens.

J NAYLOR
Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Bernie Magruder & the Disappearing Bodies: Bodies are coming and
going from the Bessledorf Hotel - dead and alive! Bernie’s determined to get to the bottom of the
case.

J NICKERSO
Nickerson, Sara. How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found: With a swimming medal,
the key to a mansion, and a comic book about a half-man/half-rat as her only clues, a twelve-year-old
girl seeks the true story of her father's mysterious death four years earlier near an island in the Pacific
Northwest.
J RASKIN
Raskin, Ellen. The Westing Game: The mysterious death of an eccentric millionaire brings together
an unlikely assortment of heirs who must uncover the circumstances of his death before they can
claim their inheritance.

J SANTOPO
Santopolo, Jill. The Nina, the Pinta, and the Vanishing Treasure: When the entire Christopher
Columbus exhibit disappears from the local museum, fourth-grade sleuth-in-training Alec Flint
investigates, aided by his new classmate and potential partner, Gina, who wants his help looking into
the disappearance of a teacher. (Sequel Ransom Note Blues)

J STEWART
Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society: After passing a series of mind-bending
tests, four children are selected for a secret mission that requires them to go undercover at the
Learning Institute for the Very Enlightened, where the only rule is that there are no rules.

J VANDRAA
Van Draanen. Sammy Keyes and the Skeleton Man: On Halloween night, seventh grader Sammy
stumbles onto a mystery involving a twenty-year-old family feud and some heirlooms stolen by a man
in a skeleton costume.

J WRIGHT
Wright, Betty Ren. The Dollhouse Murders: A dollhouse filled with a ghostly light in the middle of
the night and dolls that have moved from where she last left them lead Amy and her developmentally
arrested sister to unravel the mystery surrounding grisly murders that took place years ago.

Some series books for Mystery lovers:

J BYARS Herculeah Jones. (Byars, Betsy Cromer)
J KEENE Nancy Drew (Keene, Carolyn)
J DIXON Hardy Boys (Dixon, Franklin)
J ERICKSO Hank the Cowdog (Erickson, John)
J BALABAN McGrowl (Balaban, Bob)