For young readers, working on mysteries with just enough clues
No matter what genre it belongs to, every good story has a bit of mystery in it. The question at the heart of the story is what drives it — a question about who the main character is, how they will solve their problem, what unexpected thing set the chain of events in motion.
These playful books all take a different approach to mystery, but each one seeks to answer a question, of sorts, and takes readers along on an adventure as it does.
In “Paradise Sands,” author-illustrator Levi Pinfold creates a stunning tale about a world of sinister beauty — and a mysterious, circular tale of bravery. (Ages 5 through 9, Candlewick Studio, $18.99.)
With her brothers Bill, Danny and Bob, a little girl sets out to visit her mother, but they are waylaid by a mysterious Keeper who seeks to take them all “away from what is.” Clever girl, she refuses to eat or drink, and bargains for her brothers’ lives, but has she really made a clean getaway? And has someone she knows trod this path before?
The gorgeous drawings of the animal-filled oasis and the lyrical story are an enchanting mystery for young readers to ponder and pore over.
Sisters Natalia and Lauren O’Hara, who collaborated to create the coolly illustrated “Frindleswylde,” keep readers guessing about the frosty heart of Frindleswylde, who appears when “you feel a tremble in the wind.” (Ages 5 through 9, Candlewick Press, $18.99.)
Inspired by fairy tales (especially “The Snow Queen”) but uniquely intriguing in its mix of menace and magic, it tells the tale of Cora, who impulsively chases Frindleswylde into his frozen world in order to save her grandmother — and finds that his chill may be too much for her. Her heart frozen, Cora joins him to work and play in the cold, to “freeze an ocean or bury a city or hurl thunderbolts at a fleet of ships.”
Can Cora solve the mystery that tugs at her — the sense that something could bring back her warmth and the life she has forgotten? And will Frindleswylde have the last, frozen word?
Readers seeking a more traditional mystery will be ensnared by the easygoing storytelling of “Jigsaw: Mystery in the Mail,” by
Bob Graham, which is dedicated to “those with time to spare — children, dogs, and jigsaw puzzlers.” (Ages 3 through 7, Candlewick Press, $18.99.)
When a mysterious jigsaw puzzle arrives at the Kelly household, everyone is willing to take the time to piece it together. As the seasons roll by, the scene takes shape ... until Dad realizes a single piece is missing. What has happened to the hippo’s swim shorts?
Of course, there is an answer to this mystery — but this ode to chance and coincidence doesn’t get too upset about how the solution will arrive: “It’s waiting around and will find us again,” Dad says.
Sure enough, one mystery is solved — the piece is found — but the other happy mysteries of life are left for readers to ponder, including whether the family’s thank-you note will ever find the puzzle-sender as it falls into the mailbox, “a small boat on a wide ocean of letters.” Forget the other mysteries of life. Emma Straub’s picture book opens with a simple question — “Do you know what a hat is?” — and proceeds to prove that this question is way harder to answer than you think.
“Very Good Hats,” illustrated by Blanca Gomez
(ages 2 through 5, Rocky Pond Books, $18.99), reminds us that there’s more to hats than those toppers in a haberdashery.
“Acorns make snug hats for your fingers. Raspberries, chewed-up gum, tortellini, and doll shoes work too.” From there, readers explore hats for stuffed animals, furry animals worn as headgear, and hat-related mishaps. (Tip: Never wear a bowl as a hat until you’ve emptied the soup out of it.)
Humorous and happy as a hat made of bubbles, “Very Good Hats” is a very good book that begs to be read over and over — and encourages readers to explore all the other everyday mysteries of life.