Magical middle grade mystery fiction November 2023

 It may seem like this post is a little late, being two days PAST Halloween, but these magical titles are so great, you're not going to want to miss them!  

The first one is the latest offering from two of my favorite authors-Rebecca Stead and Wendy Mass.  They co-wrote another book called "Bob" that remains one of my favorites, even though it was published five years ago.  They are both masters at plot twists so I was super excited to read this one.  It's told from a few different points of view, which at first is a little confusing.  The first character's voice is Mortimer, a cat that lives in a library and rescues mice that have moved in there.  He feels very guilty about something that happened (but readers don't find out what actually happened until almost the end of the story).  The second storyteller is Evan, a boy who is just finishing fifth grade.  He lives with his loving parents, his dad who is an exterminator that relocates mice rather than killing them and his mom, who does tech support by phone.  The third storyteller is Al, an assistant librarian, who takes care of two other librarians, Ms.  Scroggin and Mr. Brock.  Without giving away TOO much of the plot (because it unfolds so beautifully), there's a big mystery afoot.  Al creates a little lending library and Evan finds a book there that sets the whole plot in motion.  It's impossible to tell you more without giving everything away, but suffice it to say that the story is wonderfully complicated with the characters weaving in and out of the storyline in a way that is most satisfactory.  This one would be a wonderful book to use to teach the genre of mystery because there are so many complications to the plot and trying to pick out the clues as you are reading along would be great.  It would also be a great one to talk about themes-themes of redemption, of family, of sorrow and regret, of completing tasks.  I thought this one was great and I hope you do too!

Here's the cover. 

The second one is called The Carrefour Curse by Dianne K. Salerni.  I'd never read one of Salerni's books before, but I'm definitely going to look for them because this one was terrific. Garnet is part of the Carrefour family, a magical family from way back.  Except she's never had any contact with any of the family, other than her mom, because her mom wants to keep her safe.  Together they operate a small shop that sells enchanted stones and that's where their magic lies-in rocks.  Garnet's mom talks to her sisters and that's how Garnet knows something is not quite right.  Well, that and she's throwing up frogs.  There is a fairly graphic description of what it's like to throw up frogs and I personally hope I never have to live through THAT.  But to try to get her to STOP throwing up frogs, Garnet's mom is taking her to the family home, where Garnet will FINALLY get to meet her extended family.  It turns out that Garnet's great grandfather, Jasper is dying (he has cancer) and everyone is waiting to see who will inherit the family estate.  It seems obvious that it will go to the oldest son, Linden, as he is currently doing most of the clerical work, but there's something not quite right at the house.  Things are falling apart in magical ways that no one can explain and there are dire warnings about where Garnet can and cannot go on the estate.  Except some really weird things keep happening, like Garnet seems to have a new magical ability-the ability to walk through time and she ends up in meeting her mom as a teenager.  She also meets a man claiming to be her dad, which can neither prove nor disprove because she's never met him and she doesn't want to tell her mom because her mom will be really mad.  This is a really fun book to read with lots of scary danger and plot twists.  There are more than enough villains to go around but the heroes are pretty terrific too.  I thought the ending was a bit of a surprise (ok more than a bit) in the best possible way.  This one would be a fun one to teach mysteries with as well.  There are also themes of family connections, using your powers for good, connecting to the earth, and owning your mistakes.  I thought this one was great too.  I hope you like it!  Here's the cover, which I'm not going to lie, totally creeped me out. 

And here's an interview with the author.