When you spend your year reading more than one book a week (novels, book club books, and children’s mysteries), they sometimes blend into each other.
When you begin a book, reading like a writer, the fun can evaporate.
When you find a book you must share with someone you know will appreciate the mystery, humor, the thrill of the writing, the plot, and the characterization, you keep savoring that gem.
When all those feelings emerge as you are on your reading challenge, your own writing, including your blog, suffers.
2017 was a whirlwind of reading and sharing books. I searched for memorable children’s mysteries and adult novels to sink into and share with others. Conferences, workshops, book clubs and critique sessions gave me ideas for my own writing and blog post surfing provided great writing advice.
Ok, Beth, stop ruminating and share! The five best children’s mystery novels I read:
- The World’s Greatest Detective by Caroline Carlson
- Harlem Charade by Natasha Tarplay
- First Class Murder by Robin Stevens
- Vanished! by James Ponti
- The Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford
Those exemplary novels will appeal to children ages 8-12. Additionally, I read a few YA novels for 13-18 year old readers. I recommend The Shadow Cipher (York #1) for both ages, The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein and Hell and High Water by Tanya Landman.
Cannot end this post without some honorable mentions. Your students and grandchildren will enjoy Tom Angleberger’s Inspector Flytrap: The Goat Who Chewed Too Much, One for Sorrow, a deliciously scary ghost story by Mary Downing Hahn, Yours Truly by Heather Frederick, Masterminds: Payback by the prolific Gordon Korman, and Spy School: Secret Service by Stuart Gibbs.
Now I can concentrate on Cosy mysteries nominated for Agatha awards along with adult thrillers and literary fiction!
Happy Reading in 2018!
Best Books By Beth 