Picture Books
Comstock, Eric. Charlie Piechart and the Case of the Missing Pizza Slice. When a slice of pizza goes missing Charlie sets out to find who took the missing slice, questioning each suspect in turn.
Crossingham, John. Turn Off That Light! When his sleep is repeatedly interrupted by a mysterious someone who keeps turning the light on and off, an exasperated little hedgehog bumbles around before discovering that the reader is causing the light to change by turning pages.
Curtis, Jamie Lee. Where do Balloons Go? An Uplifting Mystery. A child wonders about what happens to a balloon that is let go, as a parent would wonder about what might happen to a child once he leaves home.
Dean, Kimberly. Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes. Pete and his friends must solve a mystery when some of the cupcakes they have backed for a party go missing!
Falconer, Ian. Olivia…and the Missing Toy. When her best toy mysteriously disappears, Olivia the feisty pig is determined to find out who is responsible.
Judge, Chris. The Snow Beast. Beast has been robbed! And so has the whole village. Without tools the villagers can’t put on their legendary Winter Party, so Beast sets off to solve the mystery. Discovering that a stranded Snow Beast is behind the robbery, Beast has to decide whether to help this odd-looking stranger.
Latimer, Alex. Never Follow a Dinosaur. Sally and Joe are convinced that the mysterious footprints they have discovered must belong to a dinosaur.
Lazar, Tara. 7 Ate 9: The Untold Story. When 7 is accused of eating 9, worried 6 hires a detective to investigate.
Lazar, Tara. Way Past Bedtime. Little Joseph stays up way past bedtime and turns into a super-sleuth as he tries to solve the mystery of what happens after all the lights go out.
McLaren, Meg. Pigeon, P.I. A pigeon private eye captures a birdnapper with help from his feathered friends.
Mayer, Mercer. The Lost Dinosaur Bone. Little Critter’s class is going to the Critterville Museum of Natural History. They find out the dinosaur exhibit is closed because of a missing Triceratorops bone. Little Critter has an adventure solving the mystery of the lost dinosaur bone.
Olien, Jessica. Shark Detective! When Shark Detective finds a flier for a missing kitty, he sets out to discover what may have happened to the missing pet.
Patrick, Ella. Rapunzel Finds a Friend. Looking for a friend, Rapunzel, a lonely little girl, tries to fill her time with hobbies, but when she discovers mysterious footprints in the tower she finds a new opportunity to make a friend.
Ransom, Jeanie Franz. The Crown Affair: From the Files of a Hard-Boiled Detective. Just before the Mother Gooseland Games, hard-boiled detective Joe Dumpty is called upon to solve the mystery of what made Jack and Jill fall down the hill–and who took Jack’s prized crown after the fall.
Roberts, P.J. I Lost My Sock. When Fox loses his sock, he and Ox try to find out what happened to it.
Savage, Stephen. Supertruck. When the city is hit by a colossal snowstorm, only one superhero can save the day. But who is this mysterious hero, and why does he disappear once his job is done?
Smith, Elwood H. I Am Not a Pig in Underpants. A rhyming story in which a mysterious animal narrator challenges readers to figure out its identity by explaining which kinds of animal it is not.
Beginning Readers
Adler, David A. Bones Mystery. (Series) Young Detective Jeffrey Bones begins gathering clues when Mr. Green asks for his help finding the school bus he lost while shopping at the mall.
Adler, David A. Young Cam Jansen. (Series) When a baseball game is stopped because of a lost ball, Cam uses her photographic memory to find the ball.
Berenstain, Stan. The Berenstain Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone. The three Bear Detectives search for a dinosaur bone that is missing from the Bear Museum.
Bonsall, Crosby Newell. The Case of the Cat’s Meow. Snitch, Wizard, Skinny, and Tubby, “the same four young ‘private eyes’ who appeared in “The case of the hungry stranger” now solve the mystery of the puzzling disappearance of Snitch’s cat Mildred.
Brown, Jeff. Flat Stanley and the Missing Pumpkins. Working on his uncle’s farm in the fall, Flat Stanley searches for answers when pumpkins start to disappear right before the county fair.
Cushman, Doug. Dirk Bones. (Series) “Daily Tombs” newspaper reporter Dirk Bones, who also happens to be a skeleton, investigates when a family of ghosts fears that they are being haunted.
Cushman, Doug. Inspector Hopper. (Series) Inspector Hopper and his perpetually hungry assistant McBugg solve three mysteries for their insect friends.
Hood, Susan. Pup and Hound Catch a Thief. A broken bank, a missing locket — there seems to be a thief about! Pup and Hound set their sniffers to the ground on the trail of the prime suspect.
Jacobson, Jennifer. Andy Shane and the Barn Sale Mystery. After Andy hosts a barn sale to raise money for a case for Granny Webb’s binoculars, he realizes that they accidentally were sold, so with Dolores’s help they try to track down the missing binoculars.
Lewman, David. SpongeBob SquarePants: The Great Train Mystery. When Mr. Krabs gives SpongeBob the only key to the vault holding the Krabby Patty’s secret recipe, SpongeBob and Patrick must keep it safe, until it is stolen by a passenger on their train.
Lloyd, Jennifer. Murilla Gorilla, Jungle Detective. (Series) Jungle detective Murilla Gorilla has to find out who stole Ms. Chimpanzee’s muffins, and, even though Murilla appears to be disorganized and forgetful, she has a good idea about how to track down the thief.
Platt, Kin. Big Max and the Mystery of the Missing Giraffe. Big Max, the world’s greatest detective, must travel to the land of Ah-Ah-Achoo to find the king’s missing pet giraffe.
Rylant, Cynthia. The High Rise Private Eyes. (Series) The High Rise Private Eyes, animal detectives, try to find the cat who stole their neighbor’s binoculars.
Rylant, Cynthia. Poppleton and Friends. Poppleton the pig goes to the beach, solves a lint mystery, and learns that friends are the secret to a long life.
Sharma, Marjorie Weinman. Nate the Great. (Series) When Annie tells him about her missing painting, Nate the Great and his trusted companion, Sam Spade, set out to investigate, gather clues, and solve the mystery.
Illustrated Literature
Callery, Sean. Hieroglyphs. A note written in hieroglyphics holds the clues to the museum’s missing golden cat statue; readers are invited to solve the code while learning about ancient Egypt.
Hancocks, Helen. William & the Missing Masterpiece. Debonair cat-detective William finds himself at the center of a mysterious theft when the Mona Cheesa is stolen from a Parisian gallery.
Paperback
Balaban, Mariah. Scooby-Doo! And the Thanksgiving Terror. When Mystery, Inc.’s float in Gladcash’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is endangered when one of the big parade balloons comes to life, Scooby-Doo and his friends search for clues to discover who is behind the threat to the parade.
Bergen, Lara. Sophie the Snoop. Sophie, trying to further her reputation as a super sleuth, gets in trouble while trying to locate missing items that belong to her classmates.
Bright, J. E. Scooby-Doo! The Case of the Cheese Thief. On a trip through Europe, Scooby-Doo and the gang encounter the mystery of the missing million-dollar mozzarella–and they need the reader’s help to solve the mystery and find the cheese.
Gelsey, James. Scooby-Doo! (Series) Scooby-Doo and his friends from Mystery, Inc. investigate when a frightening skateboarder appears at a skateboarding competition.
Harrison, Paula. The Rescue Princesses. (Series) When all the lions living around the palace disappear, Princess Lulu calls on her fellow Rescue Princesses to help her find the missing animals.
Keene, Carolyn. Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew. (Series) When eight-year-old Nancy is invited to a sleepover party with a dolls theme, the host’s doll goes missing and Nancy tries to solve her first case.
Paris, Harper. Greetings From Somewhere. (Series) Second graders Ethan and Ella are sad about moving away from their hometown to travel the world with their mom, a journalist, and dad, who will home school them, but before they go they have a mystery to solve.
Sharmat, Marjorie Weinman. Nate the Great. (Series) When Annie tells him about her missing painting, Nate the Great and his trusted companion, Sam Spade, set out to investigate, gather clues, and solve the mystery.
Fiction
Adler, David. Danny’s Doodles: The Squirting Donuts. (Series) Danny and Calvin decide to find out why their fourth-grade teacher, Mrs. Cakel, is suddenly behaving very strangely by not only failing to enforce her many rules, but by violating some herself.
Angleberger, Tom. Inspector Flytrap. (Series) Hoping to become the greatest detective that ever grew, Inspector Flytrap, a Venus Flytrap, and his assistant, Nina the Goat, investigate “big deal” mysteries at an art museum, a cookie shop, and a garden.
Barkley, Callie. The Critter Club. (Series) During Spring Break, mystery lover Amy looks for clues to the disappearance of wealthy Ms. Sullivan’s Saint Bernard puppy.
Butler, Dori Hillestad. The Haunted Library. (Series) When his haunt is torn down and he is separated from his ghost family, Kaz befriends human Claire, who has the ability to see ghosts, and helps her investigate a haunting at the local library.
Cronin, Doreen. The Chicken Squad. (Series) When the squirrel Tail comes barreling into the chicken coop ranting about a round, shiny, green, big, scary thing in the yard, Dirt, Sweetie, Poppy, and Sugar investigate this strange object.
Cummings, Troy. Notebook of Doom: March of the Vanderpants. (Series) The Notebook of Doom is missing and Alexander and his fellow-monster hunters, Rip and Nikki, are convinced that the boss-monster has it; but is that monster the mysterious Principal Vanderpants, who is certainly behaving oddly, or someone else–and they need to figure that out quickly because a mistake could have deadly consequences for Stermont Elementary.
David, Erica. Anna & Elsa: The Great Ice Engine. (Series) When Kristoff and the ice harvesters challenge Oaken and his new invention to a friendly contest, Oaken, Elsa, and Anna become embroiled in a mystery involving a missing ice harvesting machine.
Hale, Shannon. The Princess in Black and the Mysterious Playdate. (Series) The Princess in Black investigates when a monster disrupts her playdate with Princess Sneezewort, but she’ll need the help of her friend to catch the shapeshifting creature.
Herman, Gail. Ariel: the Shimmering Star Necklace. (Series) When her young friend, Laurel, mysteriously goes missing, Ariel reads Laurel’s diary entry about a secret new friend and is accompanied by Sebastian, Flounder, and Scuttle while following clues.
Kelly, David A. Ballpark Mysteries. (Series) Cousins Mike and Kate are at Boston’s Fenway Park when the Red Sox’s star hitter discovers that his lucky baseball bat has been stolen.
Lysiak, Hilde. Hilde Cracks the Case. (Series) Nine-year-old Hilde Lysiak is an aspiring reporter with her own newspaper, the Orange Street News, and she is investigating break-ins and missing baked goods–and with the help of Zeus, a little dog with a big bark, she intends to track down the thief whois trying to steal a win in the Bake-Off Bonanza, one of Selinsgrove’s biggest events.
Milway, Alex. Pigsticks and Harold and the Tuptown Thief. (Series) Pigsticks and Harold chase down a thief when the Spirit of Tuptown prize goes missing and other things around town start disappearing.
Sherry, Kevin. The Yeti Files. (Series) Blizz Richards is a caring boss, a family man, and an all around great guy who also happens to be a yeti, but when someone tries to prove the existence of his friend Bigfoot, Blizz and his team of cryptids work to help him stay hidden.
Styles, Walker. Rider Woofson: The Big Bad Woof. (Series) A new criminal in Pawston is stealing priceless works of art, but Rider, busy with an old friend, may not be able to prevent the theft of the Bona Lisa.
Tashjian, Janet. Marty Frye, Private Eye. (Series) Marty Frye, a seven-year-old who likes to read poetry and talk in rhymes, solves three separate mysteries for a classmate, a toy store owner, and his younger sister.
