Mystery, History, and Art

I have been reading at a pretty good clip since school ended. I just finished a book called Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald. At first, I thought it was going to be another book with Quirky Sidekicks that seems to be the current trend in juvenile literature. While there are definitely oddball characters, the book is more of an art mystery. It is a combination of From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler and The DaVinci Code. Some of the solutions in the story are a little too convenient, but overall, I loved the information about the Renaissance painter, Raphael, World War II, and the Monuments Men. There are a handful of other books that center around family heirloom secrets in order to reach the resolution. I love the scavenger hunt aspect to these books and recommend them for students because they require a ton of critical reading skills to follow the plot.

• Under the Egg by Laura Marx Fitzgerald
• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick
• The Maze of Bones by Rick Riordan ( and The 39 Clues series)
• Conspiracy 365 series by Gabrielle Lord
• Destiny, Rewritten by Kathryn Fitzmaurice
• Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
• The Shadows by Jacqueline West (The Books of Elsewhere series)
• We the Children by Andrew Clements (Benjamin Pratt and the Keepers of the School series)
• The Ring of Rocamadour by Michael D. Beil (The Red Blazer Girls series)
• Masterpiece by Elise Broach
• From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
• The Second Mrs. Giacondo by E.L. Konigsburg
• Leonardo’s Shadow by Christopher Grey
• The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone
• Cecily’s Portrait by Adele Geras (Historical House series)
• The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin
• The Theft & the Miracle by Rebecca Wade

Many of these books are cross listed on my Scavenger Hunt Book List as well as my Fate and Destiny Book List. Obviously, I am drawn to this style of book. What is on your summer stack?