March Mystery CAT - YA and Children's Mysteries

The Mystery CAT for March is all about mysteries written for children and young adults. When looking at book lists for these categories it is easy to see that a large percentage of children's and young adult mysteries are part of a series. Classic series, such as Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys are still some of the most well known series in this genre. Since the 1940s book publishers have produced a steady stream of mystery series aimed at younger readers. In the early years many series were written by various writers, under a single author pen-name, based on a formula created by the Stratemeyer Syndicate. These days mystery series are written by a single author or by guest authors under a "brand name" Of course, there are also plenty of children's and young adult mysteries that are stand - alone books.
I noticed that books I would normally categorize in another genre (fantasy, suspense), such as the Harry Potter books and Goosebumps are included on most book lists of children's mysteries. Therefore, any book written for children or young adults that has an element of mystery, even if considered another genre, would fit this challenge.

Popular children's and YA mysteries:
From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler
When You Reach Me
Holes
I Know What You Did Last Summer
The Westing Game
The Thief Lord
The London Eye Mystery
The Hound of the Baskervilles

Popular children's and YA mystery series:
Nancy Drew
The Hardy Boys
Trixie Belden
The Bobbsey Twins
The Famous Five
The Boxcar Children
Encyclopedia Brown
Goosebumps
Young Sherlock Holmes
A Series of Unfortunate Events
Harry Potter
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
Flavia de Luce

Question: Did you read mysteries when you were a child or teen? If so, which ones? Which were your favorites?

I read Enid Blyton and any other mysteries that came my way - it's too long ago to remember many of the titles. Then I was introduced to Agatha Christie, not a children's author, but appropriate for children to read and I loved them. I've probably re-read all of them at least once over the years.

For the MysteryCat I'll be reading Montmorency : Thief, Liar, Gentleman? by Eleanor Updale.

My planned reading for this challenge:

The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches : A Flavia de Luce Novel - Alan Bradley ( #6 in the series)
Trixie Belden and the Red Trailer Mystery - Julie Campbell (#2 in the series - a re-read)

I started reading the Trixie Belden mystery series when I was 9 years old. My mother had been a fan of the books when she was younger and introduced me to the series. My favorite is Trixie Belden and the Marshland Mystery. Every time I re-read it I wish I had studied botany instead of nursing.
I also read most of the Nancy Drew mystery series. I didn't enjoy this seres as much as I enjoyed Trixie Belden. I found Nancy Drew to be a big know-it-all and the mysteries less believable.

I only remember Blyton's Famous Five, not a favourite. But Montmorency : Thief, Liar, Gentleman? sounds intriguing, that's definitely a book bullet for me, even if I don't finish it in time for this challenge!

I loved Enid Blyton as a kid, more recently I've read Harry Potter and A Series of Unfortunate Events. I have got Half Moon Investigations on my pile to read.

I used to read a lot of mysteries, starting with Nancy Drew, Sherlock Holmes and Encyclopedia Brown, then moving on to Agatha Christie and other British cozies. I am going to try to reread the Hound of the Baskervilles for this challenge, my puffin classic edition.

I also loved the Trixie Belden books--my mom introduced me to those when I was in kindergarten and we started reading one chapter of a chapter book each night. We read the Bobbsey Twin series too. She tried to get me into Nancy Drew, but I didn't like her at all, and felt much like Violet. Funny enough, though, I really did end up loving the Hardy Boys books, and read just about all of those books (as well as their Case Studies, or whatever that later spin-off was called). And I read Fear Street, which got me into Christopher Pike and LJ Smith--those YA authors that really cross the line from mystery into horror...

For this challenge, I think I'll end up re-reading a Trixie Belden, and maybe a Hardy Boys book if there's time--I don't have many of either that aren't in storage, but there are a few laying about :)

I read a lot of the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Boxcar Children books...also the special "mystery" offerings of the Baby-Sitters' Club and Sweet Valley Twins series. I also became addicted to Agatha Christie somewhere around middle school.

For this challenge I'm planning to read The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines, which is the first book in a YA mystery series set during World War II.

So many of my old familiar friends listed above - Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Boxcar Children. Also loved the Encyclopedia Brown books too. For this challenge, I'm going to reread the first Trixie Belden book - The Secret of the Mansion.

I think that I might reread one of the Dana Girls series, In the Shadow of the Tower…

I read tons. I think I've read at least 2/3 of the Nancy Drew books and most if not all of the Famous Five books. I quite liked the Dana Girls books (by the same pen name as Nancy Drew), the Hardy Boys and the Secret Seven too, though I only read a few books of the latter two. I read others too, but can't recall any specific titles or series right now.
I started reading Agatha Christie novels as a teenager, it was sort of my stepping stone (one of them at least) to "grown up" novels.
As an adult, I'm not all that keen on mysteries (there are some good ones but I rarely get sucked in my mysteries nowadays). I read quite a lot of adventure novels as a kid (and adventure comics, too) and I have stayed interested in that genre, though there aren't as many titles to choose from as with mysteries/crime.

I grew up reading Nancy Drew, The Famous Five and above all, Trixie Belden. For this challenge I am planning on Citrus County by John Brandon and The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.

While I would read both "original" Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew (i.e. the ones that appear in blue or yellow hardback, respectively), I was much more of a Hardy Boys girl. I read the paperback continuation of the original series and a fair number of the Casefiles. I found their adventures more interesting, or at least the books did not contain extensive descriptions of their clothing, which is what I did not like about Nancy Drew. ("I don't care that her green dress sets off her titian hair! She could be wearing a garbage bag for all I care! Just solve the mystery already!")

One of my favourite Hardy Boys was #102, Terminal Shock. Nowadays I think it's hilarious because of the antiquated computer technology (seriously, check out the plot summary: http://hardyboys.wikia.com/wiki/Terminal_Shock), but it was pretty rad back in the 1990s! I also liked Cross-Country Crime (#134) because it's set in Canada, and The Hypersonic Secret (#135) because it involves airplanes.

For this challenge I am considering reading The Clue of the Broken Blade, which I inherited/adopted from my grandma's house (it used to belong to my dad), or Chaos at 30,000 Feet, a graphic novel I stumbled on in the library catalogue. I also have a wish list full of HB and ND on Overdrive.

I used to read a mystery series called The Happy Hollisters by Jerry West, which may or may not be an alias of Andrew E Svenson who wrote many of the series by the Stratemeyer Syndicate as mentioned by VioletBramble in her introduction.

I'm planning to read The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart, the second in the series.

I like the sound of The London Eye Mystery - that's a book bullet for me.

I listened to the audio of The London Eye Mystery a few years ago and really enjoyed it.

I started out reading Bobbsey Twins mysteries in elementary school, then graduated to Nancy Drew. However, Trixie Belden was my favorite, and I read the books in that series over and over again. I also liked the Meg Duncan mysteries by Holly Beth Walker, especially Meg and the Mystery in Williamsburg.

I'm planning on a Hardy Boys for this challenge - The Jungle Pyramid, which will also fit the March GeoCAT. If I have time, I might also read a couple of juvenile mysteries from my TBR stash: The Mystery of the Third Lucretia and Shakespeare's Secret.

I remember buying a quite a few of the Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew books when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade. I think I preferred Trixie Belden to Nancy Drew.

I will be reading Sweetness at the Bottom of Pie for this challenge.

16 I enjoyed the audio of The London Eye Mystery, too! And I was a Trixie Belden fan as a youngster. I think I read all the Nancy Drew books that were available at the time -- and the Hardy Boys books, starting with the first 36 that my brothers owned.

Another series I really liked was the Robin Kane series. I never see those anywhere anymore. I liked the Cherry Ames books, too. She was a nurse, but there was generally some mystery angle in those books, as I recall.

I also remember reading some mysteries by Phyllis A. Whitney that were written for young people. Looking at her titles, Mystery of the Black Diamonds definitely rings a bell. I can still remember the corner where those books were located in the school library.

ETA to add I see that a number of people have some Robin Kane mysteries cataloged! I remember especially loving The Mystery of Glengary Castle. Odd, when I click on the link to Amazon.com on that book's page, I get the book "waging peace" instead!

I always preferred the Hardy Boys to Nancy Drew and there are a lot of them on a shelf behind me. They are the ones we had as children which my mother hung on to, and the ones she bought for my nieces to read when they visited which were handed down to my son, plus a lot that we then bought for him when he ran out of the old ones. Maybe I'll pull something off that shelf.

I wasn't so sure about participating in this month's CAT, but then I saw that the ASOUE books are included and I'm attempting to read this series this year, so I'm down for #3 The Wide Window, at the very least ! I also have The Thief Lord TBR

I read a lot of the Bobbsey Twins when I was a child. As a teenager, I really enjoyed reading Phyllis A. Whitney's books -- thanks for mentioning them, Terri. For this challenge I'm planning to read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which I have never read. It was published around the time I finished Library School; I thought at one point of becoming a children's librarian, but ended up in academic libraries for all my professional life. If time permits, I might also read one of Phyllis A. Whitney mystery.

I used to read The Boxcar Children and Nancy Drew, but I'm a little afraid of how well they will hold up for a reread. I'll be curious to see other people's thoughts on reading these as adults.

I'm planning on reading The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag for this CAT and maybe squeeze in the third installment if I have time.

I started out with the Bobbsey Twins - I would get about 3-4 books a year from my Mom and Dad - Birthdays, Christmas, special achievements. I moved on to Nancy Drew and then my Dad introduced me to Sherlock Holmes, that was the end of kids books for me.

I've loved the Harry Potter books and since those have taken to the Percy Jacksons and Keys to the Kingdom which are adventurous mysteries for kids. There's also the Nicolas Flamel books, and one I just started the Delphi Trilogy is mysterious and for teenagers I think.

I'm aiming to read:

Death Cloud
Emerald Atlas
Maze of Bones
Shadow of Night

I will have to see what juvenile mysteries I have on my TBR list that are available at my local library. I know I have several on the list.

>21 sallylou61: I used to read the Phyllis Whitney mysteries! I still have several. I'm not sure I'll have time for a re-read next month, but I might see if I can squeeze one of them in.

I loved her YA one about the San Francisco quake and fire. She also had an adult one with that setting. They were both good. I think The Fire and the Gold the YA one and The Trembling Hills was the one for adults.

I just read E.L. Konigsburg's From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a stand-alone children's mystery, which won the Newbery Medal in 1968. Although I enjoyed it, I did not like the story as much as Ms. Konigsbury's later Newbery Medal book, The View from Saturday, which is not a mystery. I'll need to read the author's 1968 runner up book, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and me, Elizabeth to see if I think the right book won the award.

I am planning on reading:
- Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul / Marty Chan
- The Familiars / Adam Jay Epstein

I didn't start reading mysteries until more recently, maybe the last 8 years or so. So, I missed out on all the classic children's series. For this challenge, I'm thinking about some more modern books. Number 5 in Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series, Speaking from Among the Bones and number 3 in Trenton Lee Stewart's series The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma

I finished The Jungle Pyramid today. It's a Hardy Boys mystery. I have definitely outgrown them. Between the improbable situations and the inaccuracies about Mexico, I didn't find a lot to like in the book.

I finished The Secret of the Mansion by Julie Campbell which is the first in the Trixie Belden series. Still love Trixie and her curiosity. How dare they end the book on a cliffhanger though - now I have to read the next one...:)

I'll be reading Harriet the Spy for this challenge.

I grew up reading Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys. Loved them both.

32. I love Harriet the Spy. Love it so, so very much.

I remember liking both Harriet the Spy and its sequel, The Long Secret.

Read The Maze of Bones today which is the first in the 39 Clues series. I wasn't aware that this series was written by various authors, it seems like a very "novel" idea. I enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading more in the series.

This morning I finished The Mystery of the Third Lucretia, a YA mystery involving art history, art forgery, and international travel. I loved it as an adult, but I think I would have been uncomfortable reading it at the age when 14-year-old heroines would have appealed to me (about 10-12 years old). There are references to rape (in the context of the history of Rembrandt's Lucretia paintings), drugs, and prostitution that I wasn't mature enough to handle at that age. The dust jacket recommends the book for age 11 and up. I'd be careful about giving the book to readers under 13. Some will be mature enough for the content, and some won't.

I finished another children's mystery this afternoon. The 6th grade protagonist in Shakespeare's Secret searches for a diamond rumored to be hidden in her family's new house, and in the process she discovers new information that could shed light on William Shakespeare's true identity.

The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul / Marty Chan
4 stars

Marty is a 10-year old Chinese boy in a small town in Alberta. In fact, he is the only Chinese boy in town. Because of this (and it doesn't help that his mother picks out his clothes!), he gets picked on. He does have one friend, a French boy, Remi (but because Remi is in the French class and Marty in the English class, no one can know they are friends). When Remi and Marty discover some graffiti on the school shed, they are initially accused of spraying it themselves! They decide they must find out who did it...

This is a kids' book and I really enjoyed it. There is a lot of humour going on in the book, and Marty Chan does such a good job getting inside kids' heads, I think. It seemed like it, anyway. Obviously, being a kids' book, it was fairly simple, but it was just a really fun book!

I finished Montmorency: Thief, Liar, Gentleman? and enjoyed it. My thanks to >2 VivienneR: for pointing me to this!

ETC

(38) I like the simplicity that is often found in children's books. I don't care much about labels: if the story and characters are well-written, I'll read it. I appreciate Beverly Cleary's works for that reason. :)

I recently finished The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines. It's not terribly successful as a mystery -- 15-year-old protagonist Iris Anderson doesn't actually discover the solution on her own, and it basically comes out of nowhere -- but it's a good read because of Iris' voice and the World War II setting.

>39 MissWatson: Glad you enjoyed Montmorency :)

montmorency was great fun.

Today I completed my read of The London Eye Mystery. I found this to be an excellent story with a unique narrator.

I've recently added The London Eye Mystery to my reading list. Glad you hear you enjoyed it.

RE: Tags used by member of the Category Challenge group: 2014CC and 14 in 14

Please excuse my repetition. This is being posted in as many threads as I can find which may yield the most traffic so that everyone in the group might have a chance to vote.

Back in February, hailelib proposed a tag combination of the two tags most used by members of this group. Her thread is here. I don't tag my category challenge reads myself, but I think it's a good idea to be able to see all books tagged by members of the group, regardless of which tag they use.

According to cbl_tn in post 17 of that thread, ”the threshold for combination is 4x as many yes votes as no votes”. Although the "yes" votes are finally ahead, we need many more votes in order to pass. I wanted to redirect as many people as I could back to her thread, so you can go to the combination page and vote "yes". (You can find the link there in post 3. After you click on the link, look for “Proposed combinations” at the bottom of the grey right-hand column. Then vote!)

And if you’ve voted, I thank you for your Thingish CATfervor!

http://www.librarything.com/tag/2014CC#combine <--This is the link to the tag combination.

Added Wipeout to the wiki...I'm sorry to say that the Hardy Boys books really don't stand up to an adult reading eye. I've got higher hopes for the Casefiles version of the series, since those were always my favorites anyway. We'll see...

I read a book that's YA, and it's mysterious, but I feel it's more fantasy/horror than mystery in genre. The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafon probably doesn't really belong here on the MysteryCAT, but I'm mentioning it here just to say "I tried" . . .

49>> Terri that book is tagged both as mystery and thriller so I think it's fine.

Finished reading The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. While Doyle may not have originally intended this for a juvenile audience, my edition is from the Puffin Classics line of children's books, and I certainly remember reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes as a child. Still enjoyable.

I've finished The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart. This is the second in the series and a good continuation.

>49 tymfos: - Terri, The Watcher in the Shadows is tagged as mystery and YA so it definitely counts for this challenge. Go ahead and add it to the wiki.

>50 cyderry: >53 VioletBramble: Thanks! It's added.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler by E L Konigsburg - a re-read from more than 40 years ago. Claudia and her brother James run away from home to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and are determined to solve the mystery of the Angel sculpture that may or may not have been done by Michelangelo. Loved it then, loved it now.

I read a couple of books in the juvenile series by Carole Marsh that are mysteries set in historic places, etc. The two I read were set in this area -- in the Great Smoky Mountains and at the Biltmore Estate (with side trips to the Thomas Wolfe and Carl Sandburg homes). I was not impressed with either and will probably not read the third one I picked up that was set in Colonial Williamsburg. I did, however, enjoy my re-read of a Hardy Boys mystery. I know others were disappointed with theirs. However, I suspect my love for them as a child probably welcomed the nostalgic revisit with an old friend.

I'm preparing to start my Hardy Boys mystery soon: The Clue of the Broken Blade. Hoping it will go better than the last Nancy Drew I read, which didn't work out at all.

just finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling. Had not ever read Harry Potter.

I decided to try the first of Chris Grabenstein's juvenile Haunted Mystery series, The Crossroads, on audio. I love his John Ceepak series for grownups, but not sure yet what I think of this one. There's one element so far that makes no sense at all to me.

58. What did you think of it?

ok, you all are inspiring me. Time to go to the cabinet with the kids books and see what I can come up with

I may give up on The Crossroads. Its target market might enjoy it but it's a bit too convoluted for me.

I'm having difficulty getting into mine too (Death Cloud). I read one already so I may just abandon the second one.

>62 tymfos: >63 cyderry: If I read one of my son's Boxcar Children mysteries, can I count it toward the ROOT challenge too, Cheli?

of course, Terri.



Sadly, this one has been abandoned.

I forgot to mention that I read the first part of the Ture Sventon books a couple of weeks ago. Ture Sventon, privatdetektiv is about the greatest (according to himself, anyway) private detective in the country who, after having had a dry spell is asked to solve a ransom situation where the man behind the demands is the well known criminal Ville Vessla.
Ture Sventon decides to take the case and solves it with the help of a flying carpet, his favourite pastries, and an array of disguises including a hotel maid and a tree.

Wound up with Cherry Ames Flight Nurse and The Bobbsey Twins at School for my Children's mysteries. I will not likely finish them until into April though

I read Harriet the Spy thinking it was going to be a mystery but it was not so I was able to get The Guide Dog Mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner read. It is a Boxcar Children Mystery #53.

I just read The Summer Camp Mystery from the Boxcar Children series. It was an annoying little story about nasty kids (the other campers, not the BCs) and a poorly run camp, IMO. :)

I have computer problems & can't manage the wiki post with my phone, sorry.

ETA TO ADD OK, I got it on the wiki now!

>69 tymfos: Harriet the Spy had some nasty kids in it too, including at times Harriet. I did like my BC so I am planning on reading more. I won't be picking up The Summer Camp Mystery. :-)

I understand how nasty kids can be, and the book eventually explored the reasons behind it in hurt feelings. I just can't believe any adult camp directors could be as dense as the ones portrayed in the book, as far as not seeing through the tricks the nasty kids were pulling on the BCs. I didn't get the sense these folks had any training in running a camp -- just "let's buy a camp and run it." That doesn't fly in today's world. I'm on the board of an ACA-accredited camp, so these kinds of story lines bug me. Anyone who even works at a camp should have training in spotting and stopping bullying, especially when it's so obvious.

And, honestly, there was really NO mystery to the book, despite the title. OK, maybe a little kid wouldn't "get" what was going on until it was spelled out. I thought it was pretty obvious.

My books for March are Passport to Danger by Carolyn Keene and The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd. The second one was the best.

I finished The Mystery of the Screaming Clock, from my favourite childhood mystery series, The Three Investigators. Unfortunately, the books are not so easy to find these days, partly because of a long on-going dispute over publication rights.

My YA/children’s’ MysteryCATs for March were:

The Night Flyers by Elizabeth McDavid Jones (3.5 stars)
YA mystery about messenger pigeons raised in North Carolina for WWI work.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters (2.7 stars)
YA mystery about WWI, vets, "spirit" photography, and the flu pandemic.

Midnight is a Place by Joan Aiken (3.3 stars)
Children’s melodrama, a la Charles Dickens, about orphans in a fictional industrial town in England.