The Best Mystery Series for Kids

Mystery books are one way for young readers to learn about puzzles and how to solve them. Recognizing clues and piecing those clues together logically requires critical thinking and reading comprehension — skills that are strengthened through reading. Plus, the suspense and excitement of a great mystery series keeps kids turning pages — they hook a reader from the first book, which makes them want to continue reading to find out what happens next.

The following mystery series introduce memorable detectives your child will befriend and admire for their quick thinking, eccentricity, and wit.

Classic Detective Series

The popular teenage supersleuth of the 20th century that many parents grew up with still has a place on kids’ shelves. Energetic jetsetter Nancy Drew, created in 1930, is approaching her 100th year in children’s literature. You can revisit four of her original cases in Nancy Drew Mystery Stories #1-4, a boxed set of reissued editions with special covers that harken back to the era in which the original books were published. 

Encyclopedia Brown (née Leroy Brown), a child of the 60s, can still be found posing questions to friends and family and gathering information before making his final conclusions about whodunnits at the dinner table. The well-reviewed Encyclopedia Brown Boxed Set highlights four cases this master crime-solver cracked that his chief-of-police dad couldn’t.

In the late 1970s, author David A. Adler created Cam Jansen, a spirited 5th grader who uses clues in her environment to solve local mysteries. More than thirty years later, she’s still on the best seller list. Adler’s series is great for readers transitioning to chapter books: The chronological way in which Cam solves mysteries supports memory and reading comprehension skills. Check in with Cam in Cam Jansen: The Mystery of the Babe Ruth Baseball.

Contemporary Detective Series

Kids love the award-winning Mac B., Kid Spy chapter book series for its mix of humor, history, and plot twists that will keep them guessing until the last (illustrated) page. In the Mac B., Kid Spy, Books #1-4 Box Set, readers will experience what it's really like to be a kid spy (who is secretly recruited by the Queen of England) as they join in on top-secret assignments and discover ancient castles, killer cobras, and more. It's humorous, fast-paced and hard to put down. 

Geronimo Stilton is an expansive book series that follows a timid but good‑hearted mouse journalist who constantly gets pulled into adventurous, humorous, and often globe‑trotting mysteries with his family and friends. The stories mix comedy, travel, and problem‑solving, presented in colorful, playful layouts that make reading really fun for kids.

Elisabetta Maria Dami, creator of adventurer mouse Geronimo Stilton, has also written a spinoff series starring his younger sister, Thea Stilton, who also works at The Rodent’s Gazette. Readers will love following the clues to help Thea and her friends through nail-biting mysteries and adventures! Get started with Thea Stilton #1: Thea Stilton and the Dragon's Code.

Middle Grade Mystery Series

The 39 Clues is an action‑packed adventure series about siblings Amy and Dan Cahill, who discover that they belong to the world’s most powerful — and most mysterious — family. Each book in the series is written by a different author, from Gordon Korman to Rick Riordan, taking readers around the world on dangerous missions to piece together 39 clues, each rich with history. 

The bestselling series is now in graphic novel form for middle grade readers. In the first installment, 39 Clues Graphic Novel #1: The Maze of Bones, mystery meets adventure as two siblings, Amy and Dan, must decide between a one million dollar inheritance or the first of 39 clues to learn the truth about their family.

Graphic novels encourage readers — especially striving readers — to use images as context clues for comprehending a story. This book format is conducive to mystery storytelling, where the reader is expected to recognize hints and clues in order to piece together the story’s outcome. 

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