The Wizard of Dark Street--an Oona Crate Mystery

Title:  The Wizard of Dark Street--an Oona Crate Mystery
Author:  Shawn Thomas Odyssey
Publication Date:  2011

I loved The Wizard of Dark Street!  It is funny, and smart, and mysterious.  Oona Crate is The Wizard's apprentice.  She lives in a magical town called Dark Street that lies in between the magical realm and the real world, and she is a natural magician.  Even though she doesn't have to study magic like everyone else, she wants nothing to do with it.  Instead, she wants to be a detective.  Just as she is about to disavow her magical upbringing, her uncle The Wizard disappears in a shroud of intrigue.  To bring him back and save Dark Street, Oona must rely on her dectective skills and her magical abilities.  Does Oona have what it takes?   To find out, read the book!

Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret UFOs

Title: Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Secret UFOs
Author: Donald J. Sobol
Publication Date: October 2010
ISBN 13: 978-0525422105

In 10 new cases featuring Leroy (Encyclopedia) Brown and his neighbors, readers can try to solve ten short mystery puzzlers.  Encyclopedia Brown can always spot the one detail that proves a lie or swindle.  Given the same clues as him, readers might find it a bit more difficult.  A good general knowledge bank will be tested and increased by reading this book.  

Red Blazer Girls

Title: the Red Blazer Girls and the Ring of Rocamadour
Author: Michael Beil
Publication Date: April 2009
ISBN 13: 978-0375843037

This Red Blazer Girls puzzle mystery is a smart books for lovers of clues, puzzles, adventures, and friends.  Using their knowledge of Charles Dickens, math, literature, religion and local lore, this group of friends embarks upon a quest to find the lost ring of St. Veronica, the invaluable Ring of Rocamadour.  It's a clever story in the same vein as Chasing Vermeer and it accurately depicts the emotional and social development of middle school girls in their first romantic encounters with boys.  The girls' intelligence, advanced knowledge of literature and art, and their self-confidence is somewhat unrealistic, but the reader is brought along nicely through the story by narration that is on level with tweens abilities.  And even though they are remarkable competent for 13-year-old girls, they are still capable of giggling, having crushes and feeling insecure.  A smart read appropriate for middle schoolers.

The Tattooed Potato by Ellen Raskin

Title: The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues Author: Ellen Raskin
ISBN 13: 978-0606153492
Originally published in 1975

Newbery Award-winning author Ellen Raskin is a masterful storyteller and The Tattooed Potato is an excellent example of intrigue and obfuscation and detection!  Just who is Garson?  Is he really the two-bit portrait painter of New York's upper crust?  Or is he the elusive painter Sonnenberg? Or worse, Sonnenberg's murderer?  And what's with his alter-ego Inspector Noserag?  Is Noserag real?  Is Garson real?  Who is really responsible for the deaths that span decades in this dark and mysterious novel?  If you liked The Westing Game or any other novel with quirky characters and a clever plot, you must read The Tattooed Potato!

Spies, Boys, and Twisted Secrets

Title: Only the Good Spy Young

Author: Ally Carter
Pub Date: June 2010

ISBN-10: 1423128206

In the fourth installment of the incredibly gripping Gallagher Girls series, Cammie Morgan, spy-in-training, is encircled in a new mystery involving her teacher, her deceased father, her school, her crush Zack, and her three best friends.  Espionage is difficult, especially when everyone she knows and loves leads the life of a spy!

Murder and a Spooky Abandoned Theme Park

Title: Closed for the Season
Author: Mary Downing Hahn
Pub Date: June 2009
ISBN-13: 9780547084510


Closed for the Season is a fast-paced and incredibly gripping book by Mary Downing Hahn!  When Logan finds out that someone was murdered in the big creepy house his parents just bought, he finds himself in the middle of a very dangerous ordeal.  With the help of his new neighbor Arthur, Logan tracks clues through an abandoned theme park trying to uncover the truth about the murder.   But just as he's tracking the killer, the killer is also tracking Logan.  And this killer will stop at nothing to keep the secrets buried in the park from being revealed.  Winner of the Edgar Allan Award.