Mysteries, Grades 3-4

Paperback

Abbot, Tony. Goofballs. (Series) Long-time friends and fellow sleuths Jeff Bunter, Brian Rooney, Mara Lubin, and Kelly Smitts, collectively known as the Goofballs, investigate the disappearance of Thunder the pony in their town of Badger Point.

Adler, David A. Cam Jansen Adventure. (Series) A fifth-grader with a photographic memory and her friend Eric help solve the mystery of the stolen diamonds.

Brown, Marc Tolon. Arthur’s Mystery Envelope. It looks like trouble when the principal asks Arthur to take home a large envelope marked “confidential”.

Butler, Dori Hillestad. The Buddy Files. (Series) While searching for his mysteriously lost human family, Buddy the dog is adopted by another family and helps solve the mystery of their missing boy.

Draper, Sharon M. Clubhouse Mysteries. (Series) Ziggy and his friends form a clubhouse after someone vandalizes their basketball court, and they soon uncover a clue that may tell them who did it.

McDonald, Megan. Judy Moody, Girl Detective. When a puppy who is being trained as a police dog goes missing, third-grader Judy forms a detective agency to solve the mystery, imitating her literary heroine, Nancy Drew.

Peterson, John Lawrence. The Littles and the Lost Children. Major Nick Little and a band of soldiers from Trash City come across a scary scene in the town dump– a tiny person’s camp has been attacked, and inside the tent are two tiny babies, but no parents. Did the big black bird outside the tent have anything to do with this mystery?

Preller, James. Jigsaw Jones Mystery. (Series) Second-grade detectives Jigsaw, Mila, and their friends follow clues to learn if a mummy will really rise from the dead on Halloween.

Richards, Kitty. Belle: The Mysterious Message. When Belle discovers a secret message hidden in one of the books in the Beast’s library, she teams with Lumiere and Chip to solve the mystery.

Roy, Ron. A-Z Mysteries. (Series) Dink Duncan and his two friends investigate the apparent kidnapping of famous mystery author Wallis Wallace.

Roy, Ron. Calendar Mysteries. (Series) Seven-year-olds Bradley, Brian, Nate, and Lucy make observations and gather clues that convince them that their older siblings, cousin, and animals have been captured by hungry space aliens.

Sobol, David. Encyclopedia Brown. (Series) Presents the essential facts of ten mysteries, giving the reader the opportunity to solve the cases before examining the boy detective’s solutions.

Stilton, Geronimo. Geronimo Stilton. (Series) Geronimo travels to Egypt to interview Professor Alrat Spitfur and learns the secret of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient Mouse World.

Warner, Gertrude Chandler. The Boxcar Children Mysteries. (Series) The Boxcar Children investigate a mysterious ghost with a glowing pumpkin head at a friend’s farm.

Fiction

Asler, David A. Cam Jansen Adventure. (Series) A fifth-grader with a photographic memory and her friend Eric help solve the mystery of the stolen diamonds.

Behrens, Rebecca. Summer of Lost and Found. Nell is a city girl forced to spend her summer in Roanoke, North Carolina, but when she meets historical reenactor Ambrose, they explore for clues as to what really happened to the lost colonists, turning her once boring vacation into an adventure.

Benedis-Grab, Daphne. Army Brats. When the Bailey family moves into an army base in Virginia there are a lot of adjustments to make; twelve-year-old Tom runs afoul of the base school bully, ten-year-old Charlotte finds herself trying too hard to make friends with the “cool” girls, and six-year-old Rosie is just being difficult as usual–but they come together to investigate a mysterious building full of weird cages, and uncover Fort Patrick’s secrets.

Bertman, Jennifer Chambliss. Book Scavenger. (Series)Just after twelve-year-old Emily and her family move to San Francisco, she teams up with new friend James to follow clues in an odd book they find, hoping to figure out its secrets before the men who attacked Emily’s hero, publisher Garrison Griswold, solve the mystery or come after the friends.

Brooks, Max. Minecraft: The Island. (Series) An official tie-in to the globally popular video game traces the story of a new hero stranded in the world of Minecraft who must survive a harsh environment while unraveling the secrets of a mysterious island.

Brown, Jennifer. Pennybaker School is Headed for Disaster. (Series) Thomas Fallgrout is a new student at Pennybaker Academy for the Uniquely Gifted where he his blamed for a missing statue so he teams up with his oddball friend Chip Mason to find it.

Deutsch, Stacia. Girls Who Code: The Friendship Code. (Series) Looking forward to joining the new coding club at school so that she can develop her app idea, Lucy is disappointed by the lukewarm reception she receives from the club’s other members, who work with her to decipher mysterious coding notes.

Eulberg, Elizabeth. The Great Shelby Holmes. (Series) Nine-year-old Shelby Holmes, the best detective in her Harlem neighborhood, and her new easy-going friend from downstairs, eleven-year-old John Watson, become partners in a dog-napping case.

Gibbs, Stuart. Funjungle. (Series) Twelve-year-old Teddy investigates when a popular Texas zoo’s star attraction–Henry the hippopotamus–is murdered.

Gibbs, Stuart. Moon Base Alpha. (Series) Dashiell Gibson, who lives on Moon Base Alpha, has to solve a murder of one of the moon’s most prominent doctors

Hirsch, Jeff. 39 Clues. (Series) Dan and Amy Cahill are given the choice of receiving a million dollars or uncovering the thirty-nine clues hidden around the world that will lead to the source of the family’s power, but by taking on the clues, they end up in a dangerous race against their own family.

Kerr, Esme. The Girl with the Glass Bird. At Knight’s Haddon, a remote all-girls boarding school, feisty orphan Edie is assigned to spy on fragile, exotic Anastasia. Instead, the two become best friends–and discover a sinister mystery.

Korman, Gordon. Masterminds. (Series) A group of kids discovers they were cloned from the DNA of some of the greatest criminal masterminds in history for a sociological experiment.

Korman, Gordon. Swindle. (Series) Luthor the Doberman, a former attack dog, has a good home with Savannah Drysdale, but every time a certain truck passes he goes into a frenzy, while Griffin Bing is caught up in trying to beat his rival, Darren Vader, at an invention contest.

Krosocska, Jarrett. Platypus Police Squad. (Series) Paired together after a veteran detective retires, platypus police squad members Rick Zengo, a hotshot rookie, and Corey O’Malley, a hard-nosed old-timer, struggle with their differences while tackling their first case involving a missing schoolteacher and a duffle bag filled with illegal fish.

LaReau, Kara. The Unintentional Adventures of the Bland Sisters: The Jolly Regina. (Series) Meet Jaundice and Kale Bland, two sisters who avoid excitement at any cost. One day, the Bland sisters are kidnapped by an all-female band of pirates. They’re unwillingly swept into a high-seas romp that might just lead to solving the mystery of what happened to their missing parents.

Messner, Kate. Ranger in Time. (Series) Ranger, a golden retriever, could have been a great search-and-rescue-dog except for the squirrels–but one day he unearths a mysterious box and finds himself transported back to the year 1850 where his faithful service is really needed by a family traveling west along the Oregon Trail.

Pastis, Stephan. Timmy Failure. (Series) Meet Timmy Failure, the founder, president, and CEO of the best detective agency in town, probably the nation. And his lazy sidekick, total, a 1,500-pound polar bear.

Patterson, James. Treasure Hunters. (Series)Following clues left by their missing father, twelve-year-old twins Bickford and Rebecca Kidd sail from the Caribbean to New York City with their siblings to finish the dangerous quest of their world-famous treasure-hunting parents

Pflugfelder, Bob. Nick & Tesla. (Series) After a series of robberies strike Half Moon Bay, sibling sleuths Nick and Tesla build robots out of household objects in order to catch the culprits.

Quinn, Spencer. Bowser and Birdie. (Series) Bowser is a mutt, just adopted by eleven-year-old Birdie Gaux and her grandmother, but when they all get home to Grammy’s bait and tackle shop in the bayou they discover that their prize stuffed marlin has been stolen–so Bowser decides to investigate, and things quickly become complicated and dangerous.

Riley, James. Story Thieves: The Stolen Chapters. (Series)Mysteries abound as memory-erased Owen Conners, boy magician Kiel Gnomenfoot, and their half-fictional friend Bethany confront secrets, stolen memories, hidden clues, surprising twists and endings, and some very familiar faces.

Rubin, Sarah. The Impossible Clue. When a scientist working on a top secret invisibility suit goes missing, Alice puts her detective skills to the test to determine if Dr. Lerner disappeared with help from his invention or more sinister means.

Scroggs, Kirk. Snoop Troop. (Series) Fifth-grade private eyes Logan and Gustavo use their doodling and detective skills to solve the mystery of a group of moles that have stolen the amusement park merry-go-round.

Snicket, Lemony. All the Wrong Questions. (Series) Thirteen-year-old Lemony Snicket begins his apprenticeship with S. Theodora Markson of the secretive V.F.D. in the tiny dot of a town called Stain’d By The Sea, where he helps investigate the theft of a statue.

Spratt, R. A. Friday Barnes. (Series) A genius girl detective discovers her ultra exclusive boarding school is a hotbed of crime, from missing homework and stolen lemon tarts to a mysterious yeti haunting the school swamp

Stratford, Jordan. The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency. (Series) Imagines an alternate 1826 London, where Ada Lovelace (the world’s first computer programmer) and Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein) meet as girls and form a secret detective agency. Their first case involves a stolen heirloom, a false confession, and an array of fishy suspects.

Sutherland, Tai. The Menagerie. (Series) When twelve-year-old Logan Wilde wakes up to discover a baby griffin hiding under his bed, he suddenly finds himself thrown into a mystery involving his classmate Zoe Kahn and a magical menagerie right in the middle of his sleepy Wyoming town.

Whitby, Adele. Kate’s Story, 1914. Kate is thrilled when her English cousin Beth visits for her twelfth birthday, and they stumble upon a secret in Vendermeer Manor that may bring them closer to unraveling the family mystery that’s been hidden away for generations.

Thompson, Lisa. The Goldfish Boy. Emotionally crippled by his obsessive-compulsive disorder, teenager Matthew Corbin rarely leaves his room on a cul-de-sac in London, and he passes the day observing and writing down his neighbors’ doings from his window–but when a toddler staying next door disappears Matt is the key to solving a mystery and possibly saving a child’s life…if he can manage to expose himself, and his secret guilt to the outside world.