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Smart Kids Can Solve Anything: A Guest Post from Ernestine, Catastrophe Queen Author Merrill Wyatt
I was the world’s worst student. You know, the kid who never pays attention. The one who misses assignments because she didn’t even know there were assignments.
The problem was, I always had my nose stuck in a book. Unfortunately, it was never one I was actually supposed to be reading. I’d tuck a good mystery behind my textbook so I could figure out whodunit when I was supposed to be learning the howdunit of something terribly boring like cell mitosis. I figured my cells were going to replicate whether I knew about it or not. They didn’t need my help.
Even in ELA classes I would skim through the assigned reading as quickly as possible. Most of the books the teachers wanted us to read taught us Important Lessons About Growing Up. I didn’t want important lessons about growing up. Much like cell mitosis, I knew it was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not.
An essential part of those books seemed to be Everyone Dies and There’s Nothing You Can Do About It So You’d Better Just Get Used to It, Kid. Leslie dies at the end of Bridge to Terabithia. Old Dan and Little Ann die at the end of Where the Red Fern Grows. I still bear the emotional scars of all three deaths.
The mysteries I secretly read every chance I got taught me an entirely different lesson. One that I found far more empowering. From mysteries I learned that Smart Kids Can Solve Anything. Things might go horribly, horribly wrong in a mystery, but by the end the kids always managed to set things right.
This is a lesson I hope to pass along to a new generation of students in Ernestine, Catastrophe Queen. Ernestine is a smart kid and a very creative thinker. When her landlady, the glamorous Mrs. MacGillicuddie, is almost killed, it’s Ernestine who pays attention to the details the adults around her have missed. She’s smart, in control, and determined to be taken seriously.
If you like middle grade mysteries featuring kids like Ernestine, give these other books a try too:
Ships in 1-2 days.
The Headless Cupid, by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
A hundred-year-old mystery. A snarky stepsister who also claims to be a witch. Four creative kids who come up with some, um, unusual solutions to problems. Oh, and the house they moved into just might be haunted. This creepy mansion was the original inspiration for the one that plays a central part in Ernestine.
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The Westing Game, by Ellen Raskin
Ultra wealthy Sam Westing went missing many years ago. Now he’s been murdered and it’s up to his sixteen heirs to figure out who did it. Westing’s Will requires that they work in pairs to solve the clues he’s left behind for them. The pair that unmasks the guilty party first will inherit everything. The clues to the murderer’s identity are all there right from the start. Can you solve them before anyone else?
Ships in 1-2 days.
The Parker Inheritance, by Varian Johnson
The modern day descendent of The Westing Game, this book provides readers with yet another twisty, turn-y puzzle as Candice and her friend Brandon try to find the location of a buried treasure. To solve the clues, they’ll have to dig into their town’s racist past. A gripping page-turner of a novel, it doesn’t shy away from talking about difficult subjects. Or in pointing out that the past is still with us today.
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The Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling
Everyone tends to talk about the good-versus-evil stakes in this series. But for my money, it was the humor and the old-fashioned whodunit in every book that kept me coming back for more. Come on, we all knew that Voldemort was never going to triumph over Harry (at least, not with Hermione on his side). But could you figure out who was working with He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named in every book? Several of them took me by surprise.
Ships in 1-2 days.
The Bunnicula Series, by James Howe
Technically, this isn’t a book about middle school detectives. However, I wished I could hang out with Harold, Chester, and Howie when I was a kid. Over the course of the series, these animal sleuths have to hunt down a variety of missing animals, including the elusive Bunnicula, a maybe-vampire rabbit. As a kid, the idea of staking vegetables through the heart so they wouldn’t come back to life made me snort with laughter. As an adult… I still have the exact same reaction.
Ernestine, Catastrophe Queen is on B&N bookshelves now.