Tag Archives: mystery fiction

The Spooky Story

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by Amy Marie Stadelmann

Paige is a fact collector and carries around a handy notebook in which to write her facts and solve mysteries. Along the way, she engages the reader by sharing her notebook pages and insights. One might notice that she seems to be using parts of the scientific process in her methods. In “The Spooky Story”, she and her friends, Penn and Karla, investigate the mysterious ghostly occurrences at Karla’s home. Karla shares a house with her grandmother, who teaches music to a collection of interesting characters that were introduced in the first book of the series. In this case, there are ghostly footsteps on the stairs, an upstairs door that slams shut and eery shadows that show up. Paige and friends are able to use their keen senses to determine that the occurrences can be explained with observable facts, although Penn is still a little caught up in the notion of ghosts. Paige remarks, “Even when you have fully investigated, made clear observations, and proven the facts, some people still come to their own conclusions”. Hmm…that rings true even with adults, doesn’t it?

There are color illustrations throughout and glimpses of Paige’s notebook pages help explain her reasoning as the story moves along. The cover of the book calls this story “a graphic novel chapter book”, which should hook your graphic novel readers AND your easier chapter book readers. Highly recommended.

Night Frights: The Haunted Mustache

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by Joe McGee, illustrated by Ted Skaffa

Parker, Lucas and Samantha live in a relatively quiet, normal town, except on October 19th. That is the day (and night) that the entire town shuts down early and people lock themselves away in their homes, wearing mustaches. Wait….what? Since the kids are now fifth graders, they hear the truth surrounding this mysterious tradition. Their teacher tells the tale of Bockius Beauregard, a man with a luxuriant mustache who died in a a huge explosion. He died, but his perfectly groomed mustache terrorized the town on the anniversary of the date he was “vaporized”. It had been the only part of him left to bury and it reappeared each year, hunting for an upper lip to which to attach.

Parker and Lucas, fifth grade sleuths who ran the Midnight Owl Detective Agency, decided to sneak out and investigate this eery phenomena in order t to end the paranormal grip this scary mustache had on their town. Classmate Samantha, a rather gothic young poet from their class, demanded to be part of the investigation and they met in the local cemetery after a quick visit to the local (scary) library to research. They find the grave that holds the Beauregard’s mustache, armed with mustache wax, salt and fake mustaches. What ensues is a ghostly chase that ends with the mustache trapped forever in it’s old home, surrounded by salt…or is it? Read this mystery to find out!

This story is well-written with widely-spaced text and accentuated with black and white illustrations that move the story along at a nice pace. It is slightly scary and rather comical and perfect for those students that are ready for chapter books. Samantha and Lucas appear white, while Parker seems to be darker skinned. Since it is part of a series, there will be more mysteries to come. And, you never know – the mustache might return! Highly recommended.

Tide Pool Troubles by Ashlyn Anstee

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Shelby and Watts are “Planetary Investigators”, aka detectives with an environmental focus in this first book of a new graphic novel series. Shelby, a fox with a notebook, is a budding detective while her friend, Watts, loves facts and encyclopedias. They are called upon to investigate the disappearance of shells on the beach. Fred, a hermit crab in a very tight shell, is frantic. He needs a new shell for a home and protection, but there are aren’t any to be found. His pals are in the same “pickle” (“in a difficult situation” as defined by Watts).

So, Shelby get to work tracking down the shell thief. They follow several clues, all of which are noted in Shelby’s notebook. And, Watts adds in relevant facts about the beach and its inhabitants. They discover the missing shells and the so-called thief – Arty, the rhino, who was collecting beach shells and didn’t know the havoc he was creating in the hermit crab world. Shelby and Watts give some great tips about saving the beach at the end of the story, like “leave the beach cleaner than when you found it”.

This simple nine chapter graphic novel is a nice transition story. It is much shorter than its 94 pages appear, with several single panel pages. Color is vibrant and text is accessible. Interesting facts about ocean creatures are interspersed throughout and do not interrupt the flow of the story. Recommended.

The Mystery Monster by Amy Marie Stadelmann

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Paige is a self-professed “Fact Collector” and she uses that skill in her new neighborhood. She writes facts, such as there are 73 windows on her streets, in her trusty notebook. She also writes some cool facts that she hears or reads, like “A wombat’s poop is cube-shaped”. One day, her new friend, Penn, states that there is a monster in their neighborhood and Paige is determined to discover if that is a fact. She needs to collect evidence to prove or disprove Penn’s claim. This leads the pair on a fact-finding mission that eventually disproves Penn’s statement. But, wait…Penn looks at the evidence and comes to another conclusion – the monster is real! Well, the real conclusion is that two people can look at the same evidence and come to different conclusions. It looks like more evidence is needed!

This book is billed as a graphic novel chapter book and has single and double paneled pages, as well as pages from Paige’s notebook. The nine chapters are short and easy to read. This mystery is a nice introduction to the genre and has some great facts as a bonus!