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I have a 12 year old niece that I would love to encourage to read a mystery series. Things have changed a lot since I first started reading mystery books and I am not quite sure what would be a good series to get her "hooked" on series reading. Please do not mention the "Twilight" books as this is not an option.

Books I have suggested are "from the dark ages" as she puts it because they do not have "modern" things like cell phones and computers.

Not necessarily a mystery, but The Book Thief was hands down one of the best books I've ever read, and it's technically a YA novel. I know that Chris Grabenstein has a YA release now too, as does Neil Gaiman...

Have you read When the Wind Blows by James Patterson? It has the children that are part bird in it and I LOVED it. He has a youth series based on those kids called The Maximum Ride series. I haven't read the books, but have heard high praise for them from children and adults alike.

Also, the Trixie Belden Series might be a good starting place. She is a 13 year old. Hope she enjoys! Love to hear about kids reading. :~)

I'm not sure how old I was when I read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase but I loved it at some point - 12 or younger. I later learned that the author wrote more kids books. Amazon says it's the first book of the Wolves chronicles. Not strictly mystery (or maybe it was - it's been 40 yrs!)though certainly spooky, mysterious and gothic. Training wheels for Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights.

Uh oh. My suggestion was sooooo dark ages. Sorry!

I So Don't Do Mysteries, by Barrie Summy.

Followed by:

I So Don't Do Spooky
I So Don't Do Makeup

Barrie, the author, is a lovely person. Her web site is barriesummy.com.

Here's the short blurb for I So Don't Do Mysteries:

Meet reluctant sleuth Sherry Holmes Baldwin!

Sherry (short for Sherlock) wants more mall time, less homework and a certain cute boy. Instead, she's recruited by her mother's ghost to prevent a rhino heist at San Diego's Wild Animal Park.

These have been some very good suggestions. Please keep them coming.

Vicki,
I had the same dilemma with my niece and nephew (age 10 and 12)--they'd already read Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings and were tired of fantasy, wanted to try mystery (especially as that's what their doting auntie writes,lol!)

I of course, being a pediatrician, wanted to find something that would be enjoyable but not have a high level of "gore" or sexuality.

My nephew ended up loving the Nero Wolfes and Isaac Asimov mysteries (I also got him hooked on Edgar Rice Burroughs, one of my early influences while I was at it!) and my niece is enjoying the Tommy and Tuppance books from Agatha Christie as well as Anne of Green Gables (not technically mysteries but great fun).

Since they love fantasies, they don't seem to mind the historical aspects of these "oldies"--it's just another world like Harry Potter to them!

Hope that helps,
CJ

CJ Lyons

URGENT CARE, available now!
WARNING SIGNS, "Lyons is a master within the genre." ~Pittsburgh Magazine
LIFELINES, "A breathtakingly fast-paced medical thriller."~Publishers Weekly

This suggestion may be to young for the reader and dark ages reading. The Boxcar Children. My son loved to read these books at about that age. Just a nice group of books to start.

I So Don't Do Mysteries is a good suggestion.

She might also like the Suddenly Supernatural series by Elizabeth Cody Kimmel. It's about a seventh grade girl who uses her psychic abilities to solve mysteries

John Feinstein has written a good sports-themed mystery series about two high school sports journalists, a boy and a girl, who win a contest to let them go report at big sports events like the Final Four and find themselves investigating mysteries there instead. It starts with Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery

She might also like the series by Blue Balliett that starts with Chasing Vermeer. It's written in the same way as The Da Vinci Code, an art mystery for kids with puzzles and clues.

You might find some others you like here: http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/...

I think at 12 you can start to introduce people to more adult style mysteries, but maybe not serial killer ones.
I was reading Travis McGee by John McDonald at that age and Helen McInnes spy novels at that age. I also read the Rabbi books by Harry Kellerman

It really depends on whether you think they are mature enough to slide from kid books to more adult fare.

In the adult fare I would suggest Janet Evanovich who writes funny mysteries, light on dead people but there is the suggestion of sex and some unsavory characters.

Dick Francis is also very good as there is no sex, but there are no major female characters. The books do have some violence but its controlled. It has the added advantage of being tied to horses. I particularly like his earlier books.

Ed McBain's 89th Precinct books are good cop procedurals.

Susan Isaacs has good books with female characters doing the investigating.

Barbara Paul has some very funny mysteries that are light on violence and sex but adult.

Here are some particularly good books that while adult probably not going to expose her to topics that you ay not want her to read:

1. Agnes and the Hitman by Jennifer Cruise
2. Whip Hand by Dick Francis
3. To the Hilt by Dick Francis
4. Motherless Brooklyn (about a boy with Tourettes who investigates a crime) by Jonathan Lethem
5. The Curious Case of the Dog in Night time by mark Haddon(about a boy who is autistic who investigates the death of a dog

My 7 year old loves the Cam Jansen mystery series. It is about a girl with a photographic memory who solves mysteries at school, in her town, etc. There are loads of books in the series. They also have a Young Cam Jansen series for even younger kid.

Stacy Juba
Twenty-Five Years Ago Today Now Available

Stacy, if your child likes Cam Jansen, then you might also want to suggest reading Donald J. Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown series. They're solve-it-yourself mysteries also.

There are some newer Nancy Drew mysteries that might include the newer technologies. We're still working through the classics. (My daughter is 9.)

Stephen

Lots of good suggestions listed here. I want to echo Michelle's suggestion of Chris Grabenstein's series. It starts with CROSSROADS followed by HANGING HILL and the third comes out this spring. Excellent series for your middle grade reader.

Vicki wrote: "I have a 12 year old niece that I would love to encourage to read a mystery series. Things have changed a lot since I first started reading mystery books and I am not quite sure what would be a goo..."

The Red Blazer Girls is a new mystery series set in NYC. (Think updated Nancy Drew). Blue Balliet's books are wonderful. There is also a series called Enola Holmes by Nancy Springer. Enola is Sherlock Holmes younger and non-conventional sister. Inkheart trilogy is a fantasy/mystery series by Cornelia Funke.

Some of the adult cozy mysteries might appeal to a twelve year old; and they are sually not really violent or too sexually explicit. Jill Churchill's "Jane Jeffrey" mysteries about a suburban housewive who solves crimes are good. Some titles are The Class Menagerie and War and Peas. Light easy humourous mysteries but well written also.

I did find the Red Blazer Girls on my last shopping trip. My niece called me the other night and let me know that she likes them.

I read a lot of the Agatha Christies as an adolescent/early teen.

Before that it had been Hardy Boys and Agaton Sax novels (fantastic comic detective novels from a Swedish writer)

Sherlock Holmes before anything else in mystery, I think. (At about 10.) Then Agatha Cristie, at 12 or so.

But I'm from the Dark Ages!

The Alexander McCall Smith "No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series. My daughter enjoyed these starting from when she was around 14. I myself read Sherlock Holmes while very young (at primary school, ie less than 11, certainly) - but there was much less to choose from in those days! The short story format of Holmes works well for the younger reader, both my daughters have read several of these when quite young.