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KOR |
On the Run Series (age 9-12) by Gordon Korman realistic ... mystery ... adventure ... action Publisher comments: Aidan and Meg Falconer are their parents' only hope. The Falconers are facing life in prison -- unless Aidan and Meg can follow a trail of clues to prove their innocence. The problem? Right now they're trapped in a juvenile detention center. Until they escape one night -- and find themselves on the run, both from the authorities and from a sinister attacker t who has his own reason to stop them. The Falconers must use their wits to make it across the country ... with plenty of tests along the way. title: Now You See Them, Now You Don't |
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VAN |
Moon Over Manifest
(age 9-12) by Clare Vanderpool mystery ... historical Publisher comments: "The movement of the train rocked me like a lullaby. I closed my eyes to the dusty countryside and imagined the sign I'd seen only in Gideon's stories: Manifest—A Town with a rich past and a bright future." Abilene Tucker feels abandoned. Her father has put her on a train, sending her off to live with an old friend for the summer while he works a railroad job. Armed only with a few possessions and her list of universals, Abilene jumps off the train in Manifest, Kansas, aiming to learn about the boy her father once was. Having heard stories about Manifest, Abilene is disappointed to find that it's just a dried-up, worn-out old town. But her disappointment quickly turns to excitement when she discovers a hidden cigar box full of mementos, including some old letters that mention a spy known as the Rattler. These mysterious letters send Abilene and her new friends, Lettie and Ruthanne, on an honest-to-goodness spy hunt, even though they are warned to "Leave Well Enough Alone." Abilene throws all caution aside when she heads down the mysterious Path to Perdition to pay a debt to the reclusive Miss Sadie, a diviner who only tells stories from the past. It seems that Manifest's history is full of colorful and shadowy characters—and long-held secrets. The more Abilene hears, the more determined she is to learn just what role her father played in that history. And as Manifest's secrets are laid bare one by one, Abilene begins to weave her own story into the fabric of the town. |
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DEF |
The Ghost of Fossil Glen
(age 9-12) by Cynthia C. DeFelice letters/journal ... mystery ... friendship ... spooky Allie Nichols knows she's being pursued by a ghost. But her friend Karen calls her a liar and doesn't want to hear stuff like that. It is Allie's old pal Dub who listens eagerly as Allie tells him about a voice that guides her safely down a steep cliff side, the face in her mind's eye of a girl who begs ``Help me,'' and a terrible nightmare in which that girl falls to her death. Who is the girl? Is she the ghost? And what does the ghost want from Allie? As Allie discovers that her role is to avenge a murder, she also learns something about friendship, false and true, in this gripping ghost story and murder mystery. |
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BRO |
Masterpiece
(age 9-12) by Elise Broach the arts ... mystery ... friendship Publisher comments: Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays apartment. He is very much a beetle. James Pompaday lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an eleven-year-old boy. After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Durer. But James can't go through with the plan without Marvin's help. And thats where things get really complicated (and interesting!). |
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BAR |
Sherlock Files Series (age 9-12) by Tracy Barrett adventure ... mystery Publisher comments: Xena and Xander Holmes, an American brother and sister living in London for a year, discover that Sherlock Holmes was their great-great-great grandfather when they are inducted into the Society for the Preservation of Famous Detectives and given his unsolved casebook, from which they attempt to solve the case of a famous missing painting. title: The Hundred-Year-Old Secret |
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The 39 Clues (age 9-12) historical ... action ... adventure ... mystery Minutes before she died Grace Cahill changed her will, leaving her decendants an impossible decision: "You have a choice: one million dollars or a clue." Grace is the last matriarch of the Cahills, the world's most powerful family. Everyone from Napoleon to Houdini is related to the Cahills, yet the source of the family power is lost. 39 clues hidden around the world will reveal the family's secret, but no one has been able to assemble them. Now the clues race is on, and young Amy and Dan must decide what's important: hunting clues or uncovering what REALLY happened to their parents. title: The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan F RIO title: One False Note by Gordon Korman F KOR title: The Sword Thief by Peter Lerangis F LER title: Beyond the Grave by Jude Watson F WAT title: The Black Circle by Patrick Carman F CAR title: Into the Gauntlet by Margaret Peterson Haddix F HAD title: The Viper's Nest by Peter Lerangis F LER title: The Emperor's Code by Gordon Korman F KOR | |
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LAN |
The Diamond in the Window
(age 9-12) by Jane Langton mystery ... fantasy Eleanor and Eddy are searching for the lost children, Ned and Nora, who vanished from the old room at the top of the house without a trace. In the room, they find verses scratched on the window by Prince Krishna before he, too, disappeared. Now the verses become clues to guide them, but the search is long and mysterious, leading the children deep into dreams that turn into real-life nightmares. |
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IBB |
The Star of Kazan
(age 9-12) by Eva Ibbotson mystery ... identity Set in pre-World War I Vienna, a young servant girl Annika learns that she is actually an aristocrat whose true home is an ancient castle. There, Annika discovers that all is not as it seems in the lives of her newfound family. |
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COL |
Half-moon Investigations
(age 9-12) by Eoin Colfer action ... brilliant protagonist ... mystery Catalog: Twelve-year-old Fletcher Moon, the youngest qualified private detective in the world, receives a diploma and gold-plated detective's shield after completing an Internet course, and sets out to solve petty crimes at school, but he forced to go on the run when, while investigating the town's biggest crime family, his badge is stolen and he is framed for several crimes he did not commit. |
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CUR |
The Great Smith House Hustle
(age 9-12) by Jane Louise Curry enterprise ... family ... mystery Just after moving into their grandmother's house in Pittsburgh, the five Smith children must uncover a long-standing scam to steal the houses of old people before Grandma Smith loses her home. |
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SNY |
The Trespassers
(age 9-12) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder adventure ... mystery ... spooky It all starts the summer after Neely finishes fifth grade. She is trying to entertain her little brother, Grub, when they accidentally find a way to sneak into Halcyon House, a magnificent mansion that has been deserted for years. Inside they discover a wonderful surprise, a playroom full of fabulous old-fashioned toys. Despite the spookiness of the house and the rumors about a ghost that haunts it, and despite the fact that they don't belong there, the playroom becomes their secret hideaway. |
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NAY |
Bernie and the Bessledorf Ghost
(age 9-12) by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor spooky ... mystery Living at the Bessledorf Hotel, where his father works as the manager, Bernie tries to solve the mystery of a troubled, young ghost who wanders the halls of the hotel at night. sequel: The Face in the Bessledorf Funeral Parlor |
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FLE |
The Half-A-Moon Inn
(age 9-12) by Paul Fleischman adventure ... mystery Lost on wintry roads, mute-born Aaron searches for his mother, who has failed to return from the town market. Nearly half-frozen, he stumbles into the Half-a-Moon Inn, where the wicked proprietor forces him to assist her with picking pockets and prying into people's dreams. |
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VAN |
There's a Dead Person Following My Sister Around
(age 9-12) by Vivian Vande Velde historical ... mystery ... spooky When Ted's five-year-old sister Vicki invents an imaginary friend, no one is too concerned . . . until they realize that her friend can move things. Ted is sure that Vicki's ``friend'' Marella is a ghost. But why would a ghost haunt Vicki? And why does Marella seem to be terrified of another ghost-a dark figure that is haunting Ted? |
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SNY |
Gib Rides Home
(age 9-12) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder identity ... mystery ... historical ... family Gib Whittaker's life at Lovell House Orphanage in the early 1900s is pretty bleak. But along with hours of chores, bad food, and paddlings, the boys do get some schooling, and reading and writing are better than scrubbing floors. Still, Gib's fondest dream is to have a real family. So when Georgie Olson is adopted, Gib can't help being jealous, even when he finds out that the "adoption" really means being farmed out to work as unpaid labor until the age of 18. When Gib himself is farmed out, he arrives at the home he has always dreamed of. But he's soon aware of barely concealed tensions and secrets kept hidden from him. sequel: Gib and the Gray Ghost |
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JAC |
Castaways of the Flying Dutchman
(age 9-12) by Brian Jacques voyages/journeys ... mystery The Flying Dutchman! The legend of the wind-tattered ghost ship and its mad sea captain, cursed to sail the seas forever, has been passed down throughout the centuries. But what of the young boy and his dog who were trapped aboard that ship? What became of them? In this, one of Jacques' most original adventures, the castaway boy and dog set off on an eternal journey of their own, braving icy wind and waves to arrive at strange shores, and explore new places and times. The unlikely Chapelvale village is their first destination, a Victorian town under siege. If Ben and his dog, Ned, can help the townspeople figure out the clues and riddles-hidden beneath floorboards and deep inside wells-perhaps they can save Chapelvale and its people as well. |
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COV |
The Ghost Wore Gray
(age 9-12) by Bruce Coville war ... historical ... spooky ... mystery Sixth-grader Nina Tanleven convinced her architect father to let her best friend Chris go with them to stay in the old inn he's restoring. On the afternoon they arrive, the girls find a faded Civil War photograph of a very handsome Confederate soldier. Nina and Cris are stunned when the ghost of the young soldier suddenly appears at the dinner table that night! They realize he's the ghost who they've heard haunts the inn. When he appears to them again--no one else can see him--Nina and Chris know that the ghost is trying to tell them something. But what? To find out, the girls begin investigating the old country inn. And soon they are swept up in a frightening mystery that began more than one hundred years ago--a mystery involving danger, greed, a hidden room... and a buried treasure! |
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BEL |
The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn
(age 9-12) by John Bellairs adventure ... mystery After stumbling upon a clue in the public library, Anthony searches for the treasure long rumored to have been hidden by a wealthy, eccentric citizen of their small town. |
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BAL |
The Wright 3
(age 9-12) by Blue Balliett math/science/technology ... the arts ... mystery Spring semester at the Lab School in Hyde Park finds Petra and Calder drawn into another mystery when unexplainable accidents and ghostly happenings throw a spotlight on Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House, and it's up to the two junior sleuths to piece together the clues. Stir in the return of Calder's friend Tommy (which creates a tense triangle), H.G. Wells's The Invisible Man, 3D pentominoes, and the hunt for a coded message left behind by Wright, and the kids become tangled in a dangerous web in which life and art intermingle with death, deception, and surprise. |
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AVI |
Smuggler's Island
(age 9-12) by Avi mystery ... adventure "You're crazy, Shadrach Faherty," Davey called. "Crazy! You're going to get yourself killed!" Shadrach is enraged. Bootleggers have taken over his island home, using it as a base from which to run their illegal operations. The community cooperates because its silence has been bought, and times are hard. But Shadrach can't be bought. Instead, he vows to gather all the information he can to bust the criminals. He succeeds, but then chooses the wrong man to tell. |
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DAL |
Whispering to Witches
(age 9-12) by Anna Dale fantasy ... mystery Joe is on a train to visit his mother for Christmas when he gets off at the wrong stop, and his life takes a very unexpected turn. With the help of a bewitched broomstick, he is whisked to the home of the Dead-nettle Coven of witches, where he befriends Twiggy, a young witch-in-training. Joe is quickly caught up in a dramatic plan to find a famous missing page from the greatest magic book in history. The witches of England are convinced that the page has fallen into the wrong hands and that if they don't find it soon, a terrible and destructive spell may be cast over the world. With a dash of adventure, a dollop of fun, and a pinch of magic, this book is a timeless charmer. |
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WRI |
The Dollhouse Murders
(age 9-12) by Betty Ren Wright spooky ... family ... mystery Catalog: A dollhouse filled with a ghostly light in the middle of the night and dolls that have moved from where she last left them lead Amy and her retarded sister to unravel the mystery surrounding grisly murders that took place years ago. |
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WRI |
Haunted Summer
(age 9-12) by Betty Ren Wright family ... mystery ... spooky Catalog: Shy nine-year-old Abby surprises herself, her equally timid babysitter, and her older brother when they are haunted by a ghost that is trying to reclaim a stolen music box. |
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SNY |
The Headless Cupid
(age 9-12) by Zilpha Keatley Snyder spooky ... mystery ... magic ... friendship When the four Stanley children meet Amanda, their new stepsister, they're amazed to learn that she studied witchcraft. They're stunned to see her dressed in a strange costume, carrying a pet crow, and surrounded by a pile of books about the supernatural. It's not long before Amanda promises to give witchcraft lessons to David, Janie, and the twins. But that's when strange things start happening in their old house. David suspects Amanda of causing mischief, until they learn that the house really was haunted a long time ago. Legend has it that a ghost cut the head off a wooden cupid on the stairway. Has the ghost returned to strike again? sequel: The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case |
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KOR |
Something Fishy at MacDonald Hall
(age 9-12) by Gordon Korman humor ... mystery ... school Just as the Headmaster of Macdonald Hall is on the verge of retirement, a wave of practical jokes hits the school, and roommates Bruno and Boots become prime suspects. Will they find the real culprit? Or will these two known jokers take the fall? sequel: This Can't be Happening at Macdonald Hall |
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BAL |
Chasing Vermeer
(age 9-12) by Blue Balliett the arts ... mystery When a book of unexplainable occurances brings Petra Andalee and Calder Pillay together, strange things start to happen: seemingly unrelated events connect, an eccentric old woman seeks their company, and an invaluable Vermeer painting disappears. Before they know it, the two find themselves at the center of an international art scandal. As Petra and Calder are drawn clue by clue into a mysterious labyrinth they must draw on their powers of intuition, their skills at problem solving, and their knowledge of Vermeer. Can they decipher a crime that has left even the FBI baffled? |
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AND |
The Game of Sunken Places
(age 9-12) by M. T. Anderson spooky ... mystery ... adventure When Brian and Gregory receive an invitation to stay at a distant relative's strange manse . . . well, they should know better than to go, since this is a middle-grade adventure novel. But they go anyway. Why not? Once there, they stumble upon The Game of Sunken Places, a board game that mirrors a greater game in which they have suddenly become players. Soon the boys are dealing with attitudinal trolls, warring kingdoms, and some very starchy britches. Luckily, they have wit, deadpan observation, and a keen sense of adventure on their side. |
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LAW |
The Roman Mystery Series (age 9-12) by Caroline Lawrence mystery ... historical In the first of this series, Thieves of Ostia, the dogs on Flavia's street have started dying mysteriously, and she is determined to find out why. Her investigation leads her to three extraordinary people: Jonathan, her new neighbor; Nubia, an African slave; and Lupus, a mute beggar boy. The four embark on a search for the killer--and that's when the excitement begins. title: The Thieves of Ostia: a Roman Mystery title: The Secrets of Vesuvius title: The Pirates of Pompeii title: The Assassins of Rome |
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KON |
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
(age 9-12) by E. L. Konigsburg realistic ... the arts ... mystery ... adventure Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away...so she decided not to run FROM somewhere, but TO somewhere. And so, after some careful planning, she and her younger brother, Jamie, escaped right into a mystery that made headlines! |
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BEL |
The House With a Clock in Its Walls
(age 9-12) by John Bellairs spooky ... magic ... mystery A boy goes to live with his magician uncle in a mansion that has a clock hidden in the walls which is ticking off the minutes until doomsday. sequel: The Figure in the Shadows sequel: The Ghost in the Mirror |
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WAL |
Cousins in the Castle
(age 9-12) by Barbara Brooks Wallace adventure ... mystery A new friend comes to Amelia's rescue when she finds herself the victim of a dastardly villain's fiendish plans. |
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KEE |
Nancy Drew Series (age 9-12) by Carolyn Keene mystery In each book, teenage detective Nancy Drew solves a new mystery with determination and sharp wit. title: The Case of the Dangerous Solution title: The Case of the Twin Teddy Bears title: The Clue in the Crossword Cipher title: The Clue in the Crumbling Wall title: The Clue in the Diary title: The Clue in the Jewel Box title: The Clue in the Old Album title: The Clue in the Old Stagecoach title: The Clue of the Black Keys title: The Clue of the Broken Locket title: The Clue of the Dancing Puppet title: The Clue of the Leaning Chimney title: The Clue of the Velvet Mask title: Crime In the Queen's Court title: The Double Jinx Mystery title: The Ghost of Blackwood Hall title: The Haunted Bridge title: The Hidden Staircase title: The Message in the Hollow Oak title: The Mysterious Mannequin title: The Mystery at Lilac Inn title: Mystery at the Ski Jump title: Mystery of Crocodile Island title: The Mystery of the 99 Steps title: Mystery of the Glowing Eye title: The Mystery of the Jade Tiger title: Mystery of the Tolling Bell title: Nancy's Mysterious Letter title: The Nutcracker Ballet Mystery title: Password to Larkspur Lane title: The Quest of the Missing Map title: The Riddle in the Rare Book title: The Ringmaster's Secret title: The Secret in the Old Attic title: The Secret of Mirror Bay title: The Secret of Red Gate Farm title: the Secret of Shadow Ranch title: The Secret of the Forgotten City title: The Secret of the Old Clock title: The Secret of the Wooden Lady title: The Sign of the Falcon title: The Sign of the Twisted Candles title: The Sky Phantom title: The Strange Message in the Parchment title: The Thirteenth Pearl |
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DIX |
The Hardy Boys Series (age 9-12) by Frank Dixon mystery In each book Frank and Joe Hardy, boy detectives, investigate a new mystery. title: The Arctic Patrol Mystery title: The Bombay Boomerang title: The Clue in the Embers title: The Clue of the Broken Blade title: The Clue of the Hissing Serpent title: The Clue of the Screeching Owl title: The Crisscross Shadow title: Danger on Vampire Trail title: The Disappearing Floor title: A Figure in Hiding title: The Firebird Rocket title: The Flickering Torch Mystery title: Footprints Under the Window title: The Ghost at Skeleton Rock title: The Great Airport Mystery title: The Haunted Fort title: The Hidden Harbor Mystery title: The Hooded Hawk Mystery title: The House on the Cliff title: Hunting for Hidden Gold title: The Jungle Pyramid title: The Masked Monkey title: The Melted Coins title: The Mysterious Caravan title: The Mystery of the Aztec Warrior title: Mystery of the Desert Giant title: The Mystery of the Spiral Bridge title: The Phantom Freighter title: The Secret Agent on Flight 101 title: The Secret of Pirates' Hill title: The Secret of the Caves title: The Secret of the Lost Tunnel title: The Secret of the Old Mill title: The Secret Warning title: The Shattered Helmet title: The Shore Road Mystery title: The Sign of the Crooked Arrow title: The Sting of the Scorpion title: The Tower Treasure title: The Twisted Claw title: What Happened at Midnight title: While the Clock Ticked title: The Witchmaster's Key title: The Yellow Feather Mystery title: Mystery of the Whale Tattoo title: The Mark on the Door title: The Missing Chums |
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CRE |
The Watchers: a Mystery at Alton Towers
(age 9-12) by Helen Cresswell mystery ... fantasy Two runaway children hide out in a theme park and become enmeshed in an unearthly battle between the forces of good and evil. |
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COL |
Artemis Fowl Series (age 9-12) by Eoin Colfer math/science/technology ... mystery ... adventure ... science fiction ... brilliant protagonist ... adventure ... action ... fantasy Artemis Fowl, a charming but villainous twelve-year-old, takes on the dangerous world of the Fairy People in this unforgettable story. Full of unexpected twists and turns, Artemis Fowl opens up a riveting world of fantasy and mystery where anything, literally, is possible. title: Artemis Fowl |