In Search of Middle Grade Mysteries

Put your detective caps on for this intriguing panel, featuring middle grade books with a mysterious twist! Shafaq Khan’s Zeyna Lost and Found follows a British-Pakistani aspiring detective in London, whose overactive imagination regularly gets her in trouble because she believes there is mystery and intrigue everywhere… until there is a mystery at the shops. Set in another shop run by a survivor of the Titanic, where Colette secretly works, Nikki Shannon Smith’s Deep Secrets: A Titanic Novel weaves between the Great Depression and a journey aboard the Titanic as Colette uncovers the mystery surrounding her father’s death as a Black factory worker. Tracy Badua adds a hint of magic to the mystery in Thea and the Mischief Makers, a story about a pair of grumpy duwendes—Filipino goblins—who threaten to wreak havoc on Thea’s neighborhood and her chance at a fresh start as the cool girl at Junior Stunt Warrior summer camp! Helping us to moderate this panel and close the case is the knowledgeable Sarah Sugarman, a writer herself, a former elementary educator, and the senior director of programs at Lead by Learning.