Writing Mysteries for Kids
Writing Mysteries for Kids
By Julie Tollefson
Elizabeth C. Bunce began her career writing young adult fantasy, trending darker and steamier with each successive book. But, she noticed, the bulk of her fan mail came from fifth and sixth graders.
“Younger kids were finding my books, and really connecting with something in my work,” she says. “I knew I needed to write a book for those kids, keeping everything they already loved about my prose, but with a character and a story their age.”
Thus the Edgar-award-winning and Agatha- and Anthony-nominated Myrtle Hardcastle Mysteries for middle grade readers was born. Here, Elizabeth gives five tips for writing for and connecting with young readers.
1) Let your kid sleuth take center stage — First and foremost, in a mystery for kids, even pint-sized main characters must have the agency and investigative power to drive the story.
“This is one of the things I really love about writing Myrtle,” Elizabeth says. “She fills a niche for kids who read above their grade level and crave stories that are intriguing yet age-appropriate.”
Often, adults steer these readers toward the classics, especially Sherlock Holmes and the works of Agatha Christie.
“As fantastic as those classics are (I read them growing up, too!), they’re not about kids,” she says. “All the characters are adults, with adult concerns. I wanted to give my young fans all the fun of those traditional mysteries, with stories where they get to shine.”
In the Myrtle series, that means 12-year-old Myrtle gathers the clues, makes deductions, and solves the crimes, in every book. Myrtle’s age, far from being a hindrance, gives her insight that adults around her don’t have.
“Kids might notice totally different things about a crime than adult sleuths,” Elizabeth says. “Using that unique perspective to craft your mystery is another way to reach beyond the basics and add surprising depth to your stories.”
2) Don’t be afraid of the dark — “I firmly believe we don’t do our children any favors by pretending darkness doesn’t exist in the world,” Elizabeth says. “It does, and kids know this full well. They see it. They experience it. Mystery fiction provides a really important sense that at least some of the darkness can be explained (murders have motives) and that justice can prevail. As important as this is for adults, it’s even more valuable for young readers, who have so little control over their world.”
Readers, and their parents, will set their own boundaries when it comes to fictional darkness. What’s too high stakes for one child may be trivial to another.
“I was definitely the kid who loved my stories with a main dish of murder and a side of ghosts (or vice versa),” Elizabeth says.
In her middle-grade books, violence takes place off the page and the story — and Myrtle — focuses on scientific evidence and the process of investigation.
“My victims and villains are always adults, and the killers have clear-cut motives,” she says. “In my young adult novels, though, I’m more comfortable confronting my teen characters with mortal peril—and worse—and exploring darker themes and the crimes that go with them, like our epidemic of violence against girls and women.”
Elizabeth strictly adheres to one unbreakable rule: No animal violence.
“Readers can be confident that I won’t kill off an animal character or include gruesome scenes for the sake of ‘authenticity,’” she says.
3) Give your story all-ages appeal — Elizabeth writes for kids, but she weaves in elements that appeal to adults, as well.
“The humor, animal characters, quick pace, and fun stories work for younger kids, while the layers of Easter eggs, criminal intrigue, and rich language make them rewarding for adults,” she says. “I suspect my core fan base is actually grandparents, parents, and aunts and uncles who want to introduce their kids to the joy of traditional mysteries. These are books that are happily shared across generations, and I could not be more delighted!”
At a recent pop culture con, an adult fan bought the full Myrtle series for herself, but her nine-year-old granddaughter absconded with Premeditated Myrtle almost immediately.
“She sent me a fantastic picture of her granddaughter sitting on the floor at the con, reading away while superheroes, princesses, and aliens paraded around her, wholly ignored,” Elizabeth says. “We’ve all been that girl, where the world between the covers feels more real and important than anything else.”
Appealing to adults as well as children means the books also lend themselves to family read-alouds.
“When the first books came out, my young nieces weren’t yet reading independently, so my brother read Myrtle to them,” she says. “Five books in, the girls are more than capable of picking the books up on their own—but they still want Dad to read them aloud (he is not happy with me about all the Scots language in Myrtle, Means, and Opportunity).”
4) Respect your readers — “It’s not child’s play,” Elizabeth says. “Kids are the most sophisticated, surprising, and critical readers you will ever encounter. They don’t let anything slide. They want us to be honest, they want us to play fair, and they want help making sense of the world. They need safe spaces to be themselves, and private time to absorb what they’re learning. Our books are powerful tools, supportive allies, and loyal friends to young readers, and we owe it to them to give our very best work, every time.”
For her Myrtle books, set in 1893–1894, that means verifying every detail that goes into a story.
“When I write for middle-graders, I’m very careful to confine my historical details to the strictly period-accurate—everything from the number of floors in a building to the number of elements on the periodic table,” Elizabeth says. “My books might be the first time they encounter a particular historical detail or an issue they’ve not faced before, and I owe it to them to get it right. When you’re a young reader, books matter. They offer exciting windows into new experiences or vital, validating mirrors of our own truths. There’s no shirking that duty.”
Still, she’s looking forward to easing some of the pressure she puts on herself when she begins writing her first adult historical mystery later this year.
“I can relax just a little, knowing adults bring their own knowledge of history to the reading and can determine when, how, and why authors might fudge things for the sake of a good yarn,” she says. “Don’t get me wrong, I adore the challenge of working within confined facts, but I’m looking forward to maybe not double-checking every sentence against my etymology dictionary.”
5) A mystery is a mystery, regardless of the age of the reader — Middle grade mystery readers want the same key elements in their stories as their adult counterparts, Elizabeth says: An engaging sleuth, a baffling crime, a compelling culprit, tantalizing red herrings, and a satisfying puzzle.
“I don’t worry too much about whether my readers can keep up with Myrtle, although if I’ve done my job, keen readers will outpace her and solve the mystery just moments before Myrtle reveals the culprit,” she says.
Writing for kids means you have the opportunity to return to the ideas and themes you loved as a child.
“One of my favorite challenges of writing murder mysteries for young readers is finding kid-friendly plots and motives,” she says. “Kids don’t care about the issues that often drive adult crime fiction: infidelity, jealousy, workplace woes. So I have to dig deeper and craft plots that are going to pique a kid’s imagination — treasure hunts, lost ships, ghost stories, secret rituals.”
Need a memory boost on the types of stories that appeal to kids? Immerse yourself in current books for young readers.
“Organizations like Mystery Writers of America, the Agatha Awards, the Anthony Awards, and the Silver Falchion Awards make it easy to find the best of the best in kids’ crime fiction published today,” Elizabeth says. “MWA, Sisters in Crime, and the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators can help you find local communities, events, and critique groups.”
The rewards of writing for kids are worth the effort.
“Books for young readers matter, particularly middle-grade books. Those are the formative stories we remember for a lifetime, the stories we discover ourselves, the ones that feed our curiosity about the world and inspire lifelong passions. I’ve had fan letters from kids who tell me, ‘I didn’t know there were books about murder for me,’ and as odd as that may sound: Yes. I know that feeling exactly, and it’s an honor to get that connection with a young person.”