Bottom line: pictorial mysteries.
Author: Lucinda Landon
Lexile measure: about 490
Language: No issues.
Violence: In some stories, people might get hurt by falling, tripping, or being pushed or run into accidentally.
Big Kid Mature Topics: These mysteries deal with issues like theft, or items getting lost/taken/stolen. Suspects often lie.
Illustrations: Black and white drawings, every few pages.
Plot: moderately complex.
These mystery books are great beginner mysteries. The idea is that you read the story and look carefully at the pictures. Every so often the story pauses and the book asks you, the reader to answer a question like, "WHERE SHOULD THEY LOOK?" or "HOW DID SHE KNOW?" and you have the opportunity to try to be a detective, too, before the story goes on and the answer is given. The answers are all right in the story and pictures, and you don't need to have any specialized outside knowledge to figure out the answers, if you are patient enough, unlike the Encyclopedia Brown series. This series depends highly on the pictures, so they are great for visual kids, and the answers aren't completely obvious, so even readers who have a reading level far above what the Lexile reflects can enjoy this series.
