Mystery books for summer reading

While my daughter is a big fan of animal books, Superman loves mysteries.  But, he’s very particular about his mysteries, he’s not wanting murder mysteries, he’s wanting lighthearted mysteries.  So when he’s looking for books to read, it’s a challenge to find just the right book.

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Summer reading mystery books for early readers

These books are for kids just starting to read chapter books, they’re shorter, but give them the pride of saying they’ve read a chapter book, mostly geared for 1/2 grade.  All of these books are part of series, I think I’ve linked to the first book in the series, but you don’t have to read these mystery books in order. I don’t have a mystery books for middle school post yet, but thankfully my friend Mary did, so just check hers out.

• Nate the Great– Back when I was teaching I had kids reading these by the dozen, they’re cute, I find his self importance rather amusing, and they’re fun. (Though I’ll admit Superman never got into these, no matter how many I bought)
• Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds– The main character is a girl, which is why Superman just couldn’t get past it, but Cam is smart and I find her amusing.
• Scooby-Doo Mystery #1– All of my kids have read these at one point or another, my kids love Scooby Doo, if your kids like Scooby Doo, then this is the book series for you.

Mystery books for middle grades

While Superman’s abilities are quite solidly in the next category, he loves reading the books here because they are so easy.  He can easily read any of these books in an hour or so, and yet he still wants to buy more of them.  These mystery books are for a strong 2nd grader, but more for a 3/4 grade kid. Future Ticia 2024 would add these books are in order of difficulty, each series listed is ever so slightly more difficult than the previous one. I will also add he bought and read these books long after when he really should be reading them because it reminded him of being little (that’s my theory).

• A to Z Mysteries (26 Book Set)– This is the first book series Superman really loved, he would not put them down, do yourself a favor and buy the set, because it’s significantly cheaper if you’re just going to buy one, he suggests Detective Camp.
• 13 Book Collection: Calendar Mysteries– I believe this is the younger kids series, I don’t know Superman won’t put any of these down, so I’ve got them all over my house.  His absolute favorite is Calendar Mysteries #10: October Ogre.
• Capital Mysteries Complete Set 1 – 14– This is the latest by the same author as the previous two series, we don’t have any of them yet, but Superman is eyeing them.
• The Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew Collection– I haven’t read these, but over at Almost Unschoolers she’s been posting about them, and they look to be similar in scope to the A to Z books.

Want some mystery-related activities?

We’ve done a few mystery units and read a few mystery books once the kids were older and I could assign them for reading lists.

• Mystery of the Invisible Ink– this was a mystery book we read and created a fun invisible ink science lesson that was tied to the mystery
• Mister Bear Mystery– This is a great early elementary mystery unit using lots of science (chemistry) labs
• Nancy Drew book club

Mystery books for upper elementary

All of my book suggestions here are going to be from my childhood, these are the books I read as a kid, and loved and reread and saved for my kids to read.  I honestly don’t know of any similar mystery books for upper elementary that are newer.  I’m guessing this is just my unfamiliarity, but I’d love to know, do you have any mystery book suggestions for this age?

• The Secret of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew, Book 1)– I loved Nancy Drew books as a kid, I had most of the original books, and I know they are ridiculously formulaic and easy to predict, but I loved them.  Yes, there are updated versions produced from the 90s onward, but I never liked them as much.  I’ve heard they updated it even more and got rid of her boyfriend, and all sorts of other stuff, but I still like the classics.
• The Tower Treasure (The Hardy Boys No. 1)– Jeff read these, he has the same passion for Hardy Boys I have for Nancy Drew, we read the kids the first book and as an outside observer who didn’t grow up reading them, they are dated at times, but it’s still a fun read.
• The Secret of the Mansion (Trixie Belden #1)– This is a lesser-known mystery series from the 60s/70s set in upstate New York, with high schoolers.  There are about 35 books in the series, and they can more or less be read out of order, but there is character progression, unlike in the Nancy Drew books.  We read the first book out loud to the kids, and it was interesting to me as I realized how much I have certain types of characters I like, and that trait hasn’t changed from when I was 13.  I still really like Trixie and think she’s a fun character, and these books haven’t aged as much as Nancy Drew has for me.

I know a whole host of standalone mystery books for this age, but most of them were printed in the 60s or 70s because I spent my childhood haunting used bookstores and spending my allowance on books, and more books (horse books, mystery books, Star Trek books, on and on and on).

I’ve got more great books to read on my Books Worth Reading pinterest board.
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