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John Bishara

Final Paper

Mystery for Children

The conventional mystery involves an experienced detective, a known crime, and a

directed effort to apprehend the criminal, who is a known entity insofar as a criminal exists, but

is unknown in terms of their identity. A child may have already run into examples of such

mystery in media, whether it is a Sherlock Holmes tale in a movie, or a Detective Conan cartoon

on the television. While one of the three books I will look at in this essay follows this general

formula, the other two may deviate from them slightly. The books are Nancy Drew and Hardy

Boys Super Mystery: Mystery Train by Carolyn Keene (1990), Holes by Louis Sachar (1998),

and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling (1998).

On reading this list, some may immediately recognize that Mystery Train (1990) would

be the book that follows the conventional mystery formula the most, if only because of the iconic

titular characters, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys are famous

for having long series of books that follow the mystery formula described above, and Mystery

Train is an entry in another series where Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys team up to solve

mysteries together. It helps, also, that the title and setting evokes classic mystery tropes, in this

case that of the mystery on a train as famously expressed in Agatha Christie's Murder on the

Orient Express. In Mystery Train (Keene, 1990), Nancy and the two Hardy Boys, Frank and Joe,

look at an old unsolved theft case called the Comstock Diamond Case by recreating the trail of

the thief. They do this by riding a train from Chicago to San Francisco, but along the way, the

train becomes subject to sabotage. The trip is fraught with danger, including fights on the top of

the moving train, kidnappings, and attempted murders.

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By comparison, Holes (Sachar, 1998) has a few similarities. Like Mystery Train, they

both involve an old unsolved crime. And like Mystery Train, the people who solve the mystery

are quite young people. But unlike Mystery Train, the protagonists come into contact with the

mystery reluctantly. The protagonist is Stanley Yelnats IV, a boy from a poor family who is said

to be cursed with bad luck, and whose bad luck causes him to be wrongly charged with theft of a

pair of sneakers and punished with being placed in a camp called Camp Green Lake for juvenile

delinquents out in the desert where all they do is dig holes to "build character" (Sachar, 1998).

Unknown to the campers, the holes are actually being dug in search of a lost treasure. Stanley

Yelnats IV is not an experienced detective like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys are; he simply

stumbles into the mystery, which the reader revisits the events of through flashbacks in the

narration, and solves it more by accidentally fulfilling old promises and concluding ancient

hanging threads relevant to the original mystery.

Some may not think of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling, 1998) as a

mystery, because it is part of a series that is more predominantly defined by other genres,

particularly that of fantasy. Unlike the other two books, it does not take place in a contemporary

and realistic setting, rather, it takes place in a very fantastical hidden world with its own rules

which have to be established and then played with for the sake of the plot during the course of

the story. In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Rowling, 1998), Harry Potter returns to

the magical school of Hogwarts for his second year, where the students are mysteriously frozen-

rather, magically "petrified"- by an unknown figure. While Harry Potter himself is not a

detective by this point, he is motivated to solve the mystery when rumors pop up that he is the

culprit. It is, undeniably, a mystery story that adheres to the formula more closely than one might

think. It's just that the reader may not think of it that way because they are more distracted by the
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setting, as they and the narration explore it and all the magical wonders found therein. By the end

of the novel, it becomes apparent that this exploration of the setting is important in solving the

mystery of who was petrifying the students, further blurring the line between the genres of

mystery and fantasy by making them both play off the other and come towards an unified

conclusion. Incidentally, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets also looks at a related

mystery occurring in the story's past in order to solve the current mystery- in this case, a previous

instance of petrification at the school fifty years earlier that had resulted in death.

The differences in setting, characters, and motivations are apparent. Even the way the

mystery is solved can be different, as is the case with Stanley in Holes who solves the mystery of

where a treasure is hidden incidentally while others around him- the camp counselors in

particular- were trying and failing to solve it on purpose (Sachar, 1998), while Harry Potter

(Rowling, 1998) and Nancy Drew with the Hardy Boys (Keene, 1990) took the more traditional

route of proactively collecting clues and hunting for a conclusion. It is their similarities,

however, that is the topic of interest as to what makes a good mystery for children: the

protagonists, the element of danger and suspense, and the sense of distance allowing for the

mystery to be viewed as a solvable entity within the story.

All three stories involve young people, between twelve and sixteen years old, as the

protagonists. This coincides with the target audience for the books, which fall into the same age

group, and also include younger readers as early as eight years old. The characters are all, one

way or another, engaged in the mystery that is being solved, even if they are involved reluctantly

as is the case with Stanley (Sachar, 1998) who is connected to the mystery by way of his

ancestor Stanley Yelnats I, to whom the treasure originally belonged. The way the characters are

involved in the mystery reflects how the reader themselves should feel involved in the story:
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Nancy Drew and the Mystery Boys are focused primarily on the mystery at hand and feel the

suspense and dangers by those trying to stop them (Keene, 1990); Stanley is known by the reader

to be further and further connected to the lost treasure as the reader discovers more about his

family history and how it ties to the history of Camp Green Lake (Sachar, 1998); Harry Potter is

personally singled out due to his similarities with what people know of the actual culprit which

had been taken for granted in the previous book (for example, his ability to talk to snakes, which

was presented lightly when done secretly in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Rowling,

1997) but is treated as serious once it is done in front of other students), and has to uncover the

truth gradually from a position of ignorance that is shared by the reader (Rowling, 1998). The

reader's perspective on the mystery is informed by the viewpoint they share with the protagonists

and how much they know about the protagonists. With Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (Keene,

1990), all the cards are on the table as far as the protagonists are concerned- we know their

personalities and their histories almost all in the first few pages- and the mystery takes center

stage, defining all the action. With Stanley Yelnats IV (Sachar, 1998), we are fed pieces of his

family history throughout the story, leaving us to put all the pieces together in terms of Stanley's

ancestry while the corresponding pieces of the puzzle of where the lost treasure is hidden fall

into place during the course of the plot. With Harry Potter (Rowling, 1998), the fantasy world is

itself a realm of mystery that he only knows exactly as much about as the reader does, and we

share his exact perspective on the unfurling fantasy world, the attacks on his school, and most

importantly his place in all of it.

Suspense is also an element shared by all three stories. It is perhaps one of the most

important parts of a mystery story- the mystery is not just some inert puzzle waiting to be solved,

it is an active component of the story that pushes back at the protagonists and prevents them
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from solving it at every opportunity. Whether it's the saboteurs getting in Nancy Drew and the

Hardy Boys' way (Keene, 1990), or the venomous lizards that threaten to poison Stanley when he

wanders the desert to escape to a mountain with his friend (Sachar, 1998), or being singled out as

the accused criminal by your fellow students while giant dangerous spiders hold on to critical

clues that help solve the case (Rowling, 1998), there is always some threat to keep up the

suspense. The mysteries themselves often involve death and murder, so naturally the threat to the

protagonists tend to be fatal in kind. While it may not necessary for the threat to be lethal- being

accused as Harry Potter (Rowling, 1998) had been was enough of a source of conflict without

needing to include giant magical creatures that nearly eat him- it is important to note that it is not

inappropriate either, at least not for the age group these stories were aimed at. If you decide to

involve yourself with solving a mystery that occur as the result of the actions of dangerous

criminals or the culmination of dangerous situations, you have to be prepared to confront those

dangerous criminals or situations. It's an important bit of consistency; not just so that the mystery

continues to provide conflict throughout the story beyond the initial call to solve it, but to

diminish the idea that it's possible to become involved without being prepared for the full

consequence of such an interference. It may be irresponsible to suggest otherwise to a young

reader.

While the importance of understanding the consequence of becoming involved in the

mystery should be upheld, there is also something to be said about maintaining a measure of

distance from the mystery. That is to say, for the mystery to maintain its own distinct identity

separate from the protagonists and the readers. The mystery has to be an entity. The mystery is a

source of threats because it interacts with the protagonists, preventing them from solving it. The

mystery is its own story within the story, with a beginning, middle, and end. In the three stories
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we've explored in this essay, this distance is made easier with the passage of time: all of the

mysteries began before the protagonists were born. This isn't necessary, but it helps illustrate the

point: the mystery is unexplored territory, and the story is about exploring that territory, whether

it's by revisiting the scene of the crime as Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys have done (Keene,

1990), or seeing it through flashbacks as was done in Holes while Stanley stumbles into the

relevant pieces in the current day (Sachar, 1998), or by having Harry Potter search for the giant

long-lived spider in the Forbidden Forest so that it could provide an eye witness testimony before

trying to eat him (Rowling, 1998). Most importantly, the story should end with that mystery

being solved. The puzzle, no matter how dangerous it was, must be complete. If it's left by the

wayside, then the mystery fails to define the story as 'a mystery story'. It could be considered a

story with a mystery, or a story whose setting or backdrop is defined or informed by that

mystery, but it would not be a 'mystery story'. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys have to discover

who is responsible for the Comstock Diamond Case and why the saboteurs are trying to stop

them (Keene, 1990); Stanley has to find the lost treasure (Sachar, 1998); Harry Potter has to clear

his name by finding out who unleashed the entity that's petrifying the other students (Rowling,

1998). It is not enough for the story itself to be complete; the mystery within it must be complete

as well. The mystery becoming an entity is not only important for the story itself and for the

characters within the story to interact with it (and for it to interact back), but for the readers as

well. When the mystery is an identifiable element within the story, it becomes possible for the

reader to interact with it too. When the reader knows what they're working towards and what

answers they're looking for, they can know what clues to pay attention to, and construct a

conclusion and develop theories themselves. This can only be possible when the mystery is

complete and can be interacted with, and therefore exists as a distinct entity.
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This essay will be concluded with a brief annotated bibliography of mystery stories for

the same age group that the books already discussed had been written for. They mostly share the

same elements that have been written about above, and can therefore serve as good examples of

such. Through these recommendations it is hoped that the mystery genre can be better

understood and defined for the 8-16 age group, and for future examinations of such books for

that age group can more focused:

Sobol, D. (1963). Encyclopedia brown, boy detective. Puffin Books.

A young readers' series in the same vein as Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, the

Encyclopedia Brown series begins with Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective. In each of these

books, ten year old Leroy Brown uses his wide breadth of trivia to help his police chief father

with ten mysteries per book. Establishing a steady and consistent formula, Encyclopedia Brown,

Boy Detective is necessary reading for those who want to get a foundational understanding of

what's expected in the mystery genre for younger readers.

Haddon, M. (2003). The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Jonathan Cape.

When his neighbor's dog is found dead, Christopher- a teenager with a condition that

places him on the autism spectrum and a skilled mathematician- becomes determined to

investigate who had killed the dog despite his father's instructions to keep to himself. In the

meanwhile, he also discovers the truth about his mother, who his father told him had died two

years before the events of the story. A story that handles mental differences and abuse, The

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is often cited as a well-handled depiction of

autism, using the condition as an element of the character rather than objectifying it by treating it

as something inherently pitiable or self-defining.

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Brosgol, V. (2014). Anya's ghost. Square Fish.

Skewing towards the older end of the age group, Anya's Ghost is a graphic novel about a

lonely high school girl who immigrated to the US from Russia and befriends the ghost of a

similarly aged ghost who died 90 years ago, and works to discover why she had died- and

eventually learning that she would need to do so behind the ghost's back. A sincere look into the

difficulties girls face when coming of age, Anya's Ghost isn't afraid to address issues that may be

considered inappropriate for younger readers such as infidelity, sex, and the harshness of a

school's social environment.

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Bibliography

Brosgol, V. (2014). Anya's ghost. Square Fish.

Haddon, M. (2003). The curious incident of the dog in the night-time. Jonathan Cape.

Keene, C. (1990). Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Super Mystery: Mystery Train. Simon Pulse.

Rowling, J. K. (1998). Harry potter and the chamber of secrets. Bloomsbury.

Sachar, L. (1998). Holes. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Sobol, D. (1963). Encyclopedia brown, boy detective. Puffin Books.