Awarded the 1998 Edgar Award for Best Children's Mystery, Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief offers readers a chance to hone their predictive and deductive skills along with Sammy Keyes, who the Midwest Children's Book Review calls "the...

Students explore the concept of mysteries.  In this mystery genre lesson, students identify the common characteristics of mystery books and use a story map to identify these characteristics in a given book.  Students also...

Introduce your class to the genre of mystery. Included is a vocabulary list, a rubric, and a sample mystery story called "Lethal Lesson." There are very limited directions on what to do with these resources, so you will need to plan some...

Students analyze the cartoons of Jules Feiffer and the art genre to then create their own comic book-style spread. In this cartoon art instructional activity, students read about the work of Feiffer and identify the techniques of the...

This discussion guide accompanies the fiction book Midnight Magic written by Avi, enforces story elements, inferences, and theme/plot. Have the class work on it over time, it will engage even your reluctant readers. 

Students read a variety of mysteries to improve their reading and comprehension skills. Using a worksheet, they define and practice using new vocabulary. In groups, they read stories from Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and write an...

Sixth graders in a special education class discuss excerpts of two stories and read biographical information on the authors. In groups, they read the full text of both stories and try to solve the mystery as they read. They practice...