Because I am married to a school librarian, I am very much aware of the need to get children interested in reading - to give them the idea that reading is something they do not just because they have to, but because they want to. It is also no secret that a lot of children love mysteries of all sorts.
So it's worth repeating from time to time, as I try to do here, that there are a great many mysteries that are appropriate for kids and are also a great deal of fun to read. I mention it again today because a reader named Jay Smith sent me a link today to a blog post on "The 9 Best Mystery Books for Kids." I haven't read some of them, but agree - wholeheartedly - with the number one choice: Ellen Raskin's brilliant, "The Westing Game" - a book which I'd recommend for adults as well as children.
I wrote about "The Westing Game" here last year, as part of my contribution to the Children's Classics Mystery Challenge organized at the 5 Minutes for Books blog. It's perfect for showing young readers the joys of the traditional mystery - where they are given all the clues, yet are very likely to find themselves led astray by clever red herrings. I'm sure most of my readers will have ideas of their own (and no, I haven't forgotten the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew or Encyclopedia Brown), and I invite you to leave suggestions in the comments.
FROM THE BEGINNING - or at least 
FROM THE BEGINNING, or the later books/movies may make little sense to you. I find them tremendously entertaining.
," by Ellen Raskin, the winner of the 1979 Newbery Medal for excellence in children's literature. It has gone out of print - and I cry "SHAME" on the publishers, although there seems to be a fair number of used copies available. "The Westing Game" is a book that adults can enjoy every bit as much as the 9-to-12-year-old audience. Of the children's mysteries I read, it is the closest to a traditional mystery for adults, with fair and unbelievably clever clues. I can't imagine why a young reader wouldn't be hooked on mysteries by a book like this.
," by Chris Grabenstein, which won Malice Domestic's Agatha Award for the best juvenile mystery, and "
," by Mary Downing Hahn, which walked off with the best juvenile Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America. It's good to know that exciting new mysteries for children (and adults) are still being written today, and these books should encourage and entertain kids who may be new to mysteries.
," by Valerie O. Patterson is a well-written, rather haunting book that combines a mystery with a sort of coming-of-age novel. There's a lot here for teen-agers to like. Also, of course, there was "
," by Blue Balliett, a fine art-theft story with a lot of unusual twists and wrinkles.
," by Lewis B. Montgomery. The book is the second in a series featuring two school kids, Milo and Jazz, who are trying to learn to be detectives. In this one, they face the problem of Jazz's new pet piglet: somebody appears to be poisoning the pig. Who would do such a thing? With help from their pen-pal instructor, private eye Dash Marlowe, the two young detectives track down the poisoner. The story is studded with clues about what's really happening, and young readers will enjoy puzzling over the clues, reading the messages from Dash Marlowe and getting advice on some of the things detectives look for when solving crimes. It's a good, funny introduction to mysteries for younger readers.
" is described by the author as a "modern take on the classic detective genre." School Library Journal pegs it for 7th-grade and up, with a teen-aged boy named Christopher as the hero. He was looking for a summer job after graduating high school - and wound up with a job at the morgue - where he discovers a murder cover-up. Bribery and kidnappings are involved as well, as Christopher and his reporter friend Tina work to solve the mystery, which - according to the author's blurb - involves plenty of plot twists and red herrings.
," by Nancy Springer, and it's the latest adventure involving Enola Holmes, the much younger sister of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes. Back in January, 
." Bernie Magruder is the eleven-year-old hero of the book, and most of the action is seen through his eyes. With the help of his siblings and a couple of his good friends, it's up to Bernie to figure out what's really going on at the Bessledorf Hotel - and to unmask (and capture) the villain of the piece...even if he WOULD rather be concentrating on getting his skateboarding exploits into the Guinness Book of World Records. 
," by Ellen Raskin, which is an absolutely first-rate puzzle-style mystery, very much in the classic tradition. It's a book written for kids, to be sure - in fact, it won the 1979 Newbery Medal for children's lit, the top honor in the field. But I can assure any adult reading this: "The Westing Game" is every bit as enjoyable and challenging to adults as it is to younger readers.
." Enola - which is "alone" spelled backwards - was a late-in-life baby, more than 20 years younger than her brothers, whom she barely knows. Her father died when she was four years old.
," a short Dover collection of some of the best of the Holmes short stories. It's a good way for a young reader to get his or her feet wet and taste some of the atmosphere which makes the Holmes stories so wonderful - foggy London, the flat at 221B Baker Street, V.R. picked out in bullet holes upon the wall, and so forth.
," which seems to be a very low-cost way to own all the stories together. If your young reader is at all like the way I was, you will be doing that child an enormous favor. More than a century after Holmes's first appearance in "A Study in Scarlet," the stories remain extremely popular. I don't think any other fictional detective comes close, in terms of name recognition. 