Super Puzzletastic Mysteries

Super Puzzletastic Mysteries is a collection of short, funny mystery stories for 11 year olds that stop just before the answer, so your reader can crack each case first.

What happens

Every story ends with the detective working it out, and then the book hands the puzzle over. The solution is kept separately for when your reader has had a proper go.

The collection was put together by Chris Grabenstein with the Mystery Writers of America. There are twenty stories in all, by writers including Stuart Gibbs, Peter Lerangis and Grabenstein himself.

The opening one sets the tone. The morning after a snow day, someone has stamped a very rude word into the snow on the hill behind the school library, each letter twenty feet tall. The vice principal is sure it was Mongo, the only boy in school with size fifteen boots, and takes them away as evidence. Riley Mack and his crew have until the end of the day to prove him wrong.

Then there's Janet, a fifth grader who'd much rather be in bed. Her uncle is Possum-Man, a local superhero who's brilliant at dramatic entrances and hopeless at clues. When a crown goes missing from the art museum, it's Janet who has to decode the villain's limericks (while keeping an eye on her dog Albus, who hasn't finished his walk).

In another, Teddy, who lives at a wildlife park where his parents work, joins the chase when a thief's attempt to steal a squirrel monkey goes badly wrong and the monkey escapes into the crowds.

These are properly funny. The clues are fair and hidden in plain sight, which is what makes a good puzzle mystery so satisfying. Read one at bedtime and argue about the answer over breakfast!

They're American stories, so expect middle school, vice principals and sneakers rather than trainers. The ones at the start are short enough to finish in one sitting, and they're very different from each other, from a school prank to a superhero to a zoo.

If your reader likes being the detective, this is a great one to share. Can you solve them before they do?

What to read next

For more puzzles to solve alongside the characters, try Mr. Lemoncello's All-Star Breakout Game, where Kyle Keeley and his friends, already famous for winning games in a very unusual library, can't leave a new puzzle game alone.