One
of the most popular types of literature for grownup and young readers is mystery
and detective fiction. Students love reading mysteries because they are safely
thrilled. They can see the dark side of people, but they know that justice will
prevail. Good overcome evil.
Student hunting for mystery clues makes for careful reading and looking at the books
analytically involves sequencing, summarization, and looking for patterns among
other skills. In mysteries, there are puzzles to solve. The reader must
piece together the clues, and if he does this one step ahead of the detective, he puffs up with pride feeling smarter than Sherlock Holmes.
Reader responds to books because he can relate to one of the characters. With an
investigator, or amateur detective kid becomes a part of the solution. He is on the winning team, capturing villains, killers, and righting wrongs.
More
than the puzzle, though, mysteries help kids cope with the psychological and
emotional concept of death and our own mortality.
In
real life, we’re never prepared for death. It is never rational and never
easily accepted. Ah, but in a mystery, death makes perfect sense or at
least it does by the time the sleuth has solved the crime and brought the
killer to justice. He or she uses brain power to deduce the truth behind
the facade the killer has created.
In
general mysteries cover such a broad range of settings and subject matter that
they can easily be integrated across many areas of the curriculum.
There
are mysteries which rely on codes or on detecting patterns in the clues which
are great for focusing on math skills. There are crime-solving nonfiction
titles which can lead to the science of forensics. There are mysteries set in
different time periods and locations that bring in history and geography. Many
mysteries include police officers or detectives which fit well with units on
communities or crime and justice themes. There are great mysteries set in art
museums or involving forgery. Finally all the mysteries allow us to dig into
language arts topics such as characters and writing styles. Mysteries, in
particular, are good for noticing and practicing plot writing
techniques.
Recommended
mystery books:
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