Our middle grade book spotlight this week is taking a look at Mysteries!!! There are so many different types of mystery books available that there is literally something for everyone’s tastes! Some are straight mystery/detective stories while others are more suspenseful and thrilling; mysteries are usually cross genre as well meaning that not only is there a mystery element, but there may also be some fantasy, science fiction, or historical elements as well. We have a great selection this week from realistic to fantasy, murder mysteries and crime solving so you will either find something in your reading comfort zone or maybe you will feel like branching out this week. These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #youthmysteries as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new middle grade book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
How I Became a Spy by Deborah Hopkinson--When a young woman goes missing, leaving behind only a coded notebook, thirteen-year-old Bertie Bradshaw teams up with Eleanor, an American girl, and David, a Jewish refugee, to try to decipher the notebook and stop a double agent revealing a major military secret to the Nazis.
The Dollhouse by Charis Cotter--Alice's summer plans are ruined when her parents announce they are getting a divorce and instead of a fun-filled summer with her friends, she's moving to a small town with her mother, who has been hired as a live-in nurse for an elderly lady. The old woman, Mrs. Bishop, lives in an imposing, old house where Alice discovers a dollhouse in the attic that is an exact replica of the house. But things take an even stranger turn when Alice awakens to find a girl that looks exactly like one of the dolls asleep next to her in her bed. She soon has to try and uncover the truth about the mysterious house and what it has to do with Mrs. Bishop.
Coop Knows the Scoop by Taryn Souders--Ever since thirteen-year-old Coop and his mother moved to the small town of Windy Bottom, Georgia after his father died, he has fallen in love with the small town and its kooky residents. When the local city park is renovated, a skeleton is unearthed and revealed to be that of Coop's grandmother. Coop's grandfather thought she left him, but it now appears she was murdered. Coop is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery, even if it means revealing that his grandfather is the culprit.
Searching for Lottie by Susan Ross--Charlie is a gifted violinist, just like her namesake and great aunt Charlotte, who had disappeared during the 1938 Anschluss. Now a school assignment sends Charlie searching for information about what happened to her great aunt.
Lemons by Melissa Savage--Lemonade Liberty Witt's mama told her to make lemonade out of the lemons life sends her way, but when she has to move to Willow Creek, California, to live with her grandfather after her mother dies, Lem struggles to find the good in any of it. Then she meets Tobin Sky, the eleven-year-old CEO of Bigfoot Detectives Inc., who invites her on an adventure to capture Bigfoot on film.
Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor by Ally Carter--Twelve-year-old April is looking for clues that will lead her to her mother, who left her as an infant with a mysterious key and a note promising to return one day. After accidentally starting a fire at a museum, April is mysteriously whisked off to live in a mansion called the Winterborne House with a group of orphans. There April realizes that the Winterborne family crest is the same one on her key. She's convinced that all she has to do is find the clues her mother left inside the mansion in order to be reunited with her. Soon April and the other kids are caught up in a mystery involving the missing Winterborne heir, a scary legend, and the mysterious key.