The Westing Game

This classic award winning mystery for tweens still captures the attention of modern audiences after 30 years in print. The story begins with an unusual group of people being offered apartments in a prestigious lake side apartment building. After their neighbor, town legend, and local millionaire Sam Westing is murdered in his own home, a group of unlikely heirs are summoned together for the reading of his will. In order to collect their inheritance they must first solve the mystery of his death and find his killer. All of the sixteen  gathered are potential killers and potential heirs to the Westing fortune- they are divided into groups of two and given different clues to the mystery... two words.

None of the heirs are who they seem and through the process of solving the mystery of Sam Westing's death, each person learns more about their neighbors than they had wanted to know. As the story unravels, it appears that one person is the killer, and then the next, until everyone looks guilty except the young, innocent, Turtle Wexler. The cast of characters is diverse and the mystery will keep young readers engaged. Readers will make guesses about the heart of the mystery and will disagree with the narrator, gasp when surprising facts are revealed, and never guess how the story ends.

Raskin, Ellen. (1978). The Westing Game. New York: Dutton. 185 pages. ISBN 978-0-142-40120-0.

Ages 10+
Rating: Outstanding
Newberry Winner 1979

The Red Blazer Girls #1: The Ring of Rocamadour

Nancy Drew hasn't got a thing on the Red Blazer Girls. Yes, she has money and resources, but the Red Blazer girls have Margaret, the human computer and smartest girl at St. Veronica's. When Sophie sees a ghost in a window of the church across from their school and screams during English class she convinces her friends Margaret and Rebecca to help her investigate. What they find is a mystery, indeed- a woman in need of some assistance in solving a mystery thirty years in the making. The mystery begins with an inscription in a card the woman (Ms. Harraman) found in her library. The card was written to her daughter Caroline as a gift from her grandfather and contains a clue that will lead to many others and finally to her gift- a rare and precious artifact. If the girls of St. Veronica's can follow the clues and solve the puzzle, then they can help and old woman make amends with her adult daughter. Fans of Nancy Drew will be pleased with the fast paced story line and interesting mysteries to be solved. The narrator, Sophie urges readers to figure out the word puzzles and math problems before continuing in their reading giving the story a conversational tone.


Biel, Michael, D. (2009). The Red Blazer Girls #1: The Ring of Rocamadour. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 299 p. ISBN: 9780375843037.

Ages 10-12
Rating: High Additional

The 39 Clues Book 2: One False Note

The second installment in the 39 Clues adventure series finds Amy and Dan Cahill on their way to Paris with their nanny in search of the next set of clues. With violent and deceitful relatives hot on their heels, Amy and Dan must move even faster to outwit the other contestants in order to become the most influential of all the Cahill clan.





Korman, Gordon. (2008). One False Note. London: Scholastic. 174 pages. ISBN: 978-0-545-06042-4.

Ages 9-12
Rating: High Additional

Case of the Goblin Pearls

Lily and her brother Chris don’t see what all the fuss is with their auntie “Tiger Lil.” Yes, she’s a “famous” Hollywood action star, but they’ve never heard of any of her movies, let alone seen any of them. When she comes to San Francisco to promote a new product for a friend, Lion Salve, in the Chinese New Year’s Parade local politicians threaten to shut the event down due to a rise in robberies and muggings by a local gang, the Powell Street Boys. Auntie “Tiger Lil” keeps the politicians at bay and the parade and festivities continue as planned, until the world famous goblin pearls worn by the principal actor on Auntie’s float are stolen right in front of Lily. On their hunt for the thieves, Lily and her Auntie are pulled into the dark underbelly of Chinatown where new immigrants work for slave wages and danger lurks in every corner. Fast paced action will keep boys and girls alike engaged in this realistic mystery set in San Francisco's Chinatown. Themes of self discovery and ethnic heritage are explored as relevant social issues are brought to the forefront. Readers will be delighted to learn that many more mysteries await them in award winning author Laurence Yep's Chinatown Mystery Series.

Yep, Laurence. (1997). Case of the Goblin Pearl. New York: Harper Collins. 179 pages. ISBN  978-0-060-24444-6.


Ages: 9-12
Rating: High Additional

The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere, Volume 1

When Olive and her parents move into an old Victorian house it almost seems too good to be true. The old lady who lived there before had no living heirs, so all of her possessions (read: all of her old stuff) was inherited by Olive's family. The house is filled with furniture, old books, and most importantly tons of antique paintings. One day, while exploring the house, Olive notices a quick, but small movement in one of the paintings and senses that she's being watched.

After further explorations, she finds a pair of spectacles that allow her to enter any one of the paintings in the house. When she returns to the particularly strange painting, she meets a young boy named Morton who is particularly annoying and sets in motion a series of events that lead Olive to the truth about the old house, it's former inhabitants, and most importantly herself.

This story is cleverly written and just creepy enough to keep older tweens interested. Olive is a lonely and very intelligent and curious young girl. As she sets out to find out exactly what is happening in the paintings in her new house she makes some new feline friends who attempt to guide her and keep her safe. The conclusion of the mystery will surprise even the most astute readers and mystery solvers. Fans of Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman will enjoy spending time with this young quirky protagonist.

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West, Jacqueline. (2010). The Shadows: The Books of Elsewhere. New York: Dial Books for Young Readers. 241 pages. ISBN: 978-0-803-73440-1.

website for the book: http://www.thebooksofelsewhere.com/
Ages 9-11
Rating: High Additional
2010 Cybils Award Winner

11 Birthdays

What if you had to live through the same day again and again? If that day was your worst birthday ever, you might give the question more thought. On Amanda's 11th birthday, she finds herself celebrating without her best friend Leo for the first time in her life- they've celebrated every single birthday together since they were a year old. On their first birthday they learned to walk, on their fifth birthday they planted seeds in pots and watched them grow, and on their tenth birthday they learned that words can really hurt. Since they had a fallout the year before, Amanda hasn't spoken a single word to Leo and won't explain what happened to her parents or friends. The story will undoubtedly remind adults of Groundhog Day, but unlike the movie's protagonist, Phil, Amanda and her friend Leo are embroiled in an ancient curse that has sealed their families fate for generations. The story is as much about friendship between boys and girls as it is about solving mysteries and puzzles. Friendship is the heart of the story and the mystery is the skin and bones. Readers who enjoy Rebecca Stead's When You Reach Me, or the classic tween mystery The Westing Game will find this title worth the time.

Mass, Wendy. (2009). 11 Birthdays. New York: Scholastic Press. 267 pages.  ISBN: 978-0-545-05240-5.

Ages 9-12
Rating: High Additional

When You Reach Me

If you received a cryptic note under your door that says, "I'm coming to save your friend's life, and my own," would you worry? Well, this is exactly what happens to 12 year old Miranda. Things get even weirder. Her best friend Sal gets punched by some random kid they don't know walking home from school and he stops talking to her. A mentally ill homeless man appears on their block- alternately raving at traffic and passersby, laughing at the sky, and sleeping under a set of apartment building mailboxes. "Backpack, pocket, shoe" he says to Miranda one day. More notes appear under her door with increasingly personal information about her that no one should know, but her. When the key her mother leaves outside of their apartment for emergencies disappears, Miranda starts to get scared. Armed with her tattered and carefully studied copy of Madeline L'Engle's Wrinkle in Time, Miranda sets off to figure out exactly what's going on. If all of the strange occurrences and cryptic notes have anything in common, Miranda will figure it out. Set in New York City in the late 1970's, this story is part historical fiction, part fantasy, and part mystery. The story is well paced and character driven- their relationships are portrayed realistically. There is a fair share of middle school drama as friends grapple with the meaning of friendship between boys and girls, but it only enhances the protagonist's quest to figure out what all the notes are about and who they are from. This Newberry award winning book will appeal to a wide variety of readers- boys and girls alike.


Stead, Rebecca. (2009). When You Reach Me. New York : Wendy Lamb Books. 199 pages. ISBN 978-0-37585-086-8.

Ages 9-12
Rating: Outstanding
Winner of the Newberry Award 2010
Winner of the Newberry Medal 2010

Ottoline Goes to School

I really loved this quirky story about a little girl, Ottoline, whose best friend Mr. Munroe is an unidentifiable creature. In this story she is accepted into an elite private school for children with special talents or gifts. As Ottoline struggles to find out what her special gift is she is drawn into an unusual mystery at the school- it's haunted.





Riddell, Chris. (2009). Ottoline Goes to School. New York: Harper. 170 pages. ISBN  978-0-061-44900-0.


Ages 8-12
Rating: Outstanding