The secret is to find the type of story that will grab the reader's interest. What Mysteries Have to Offer Besides being exciting and engaging, mysteries offer some other excellent learning potential. Students arrange characters and events in the mystery. Students classify events, describe characters, and explain precisely what has occurred. Students apply existing knowledge to the mystery by illustrating, dramatizing, and writing their interpretations.
Students analyze, categorize, and differentiate characters and events.
Students collect and organize facts to form hypotheses. Students appraise, argue, assess, and evaluate their opinions in the process of solving the mystery. What Mysteries Are Best Now that you are convinced that mysteries belong in the classroom, you may feel a bit overwhelmed at selecting appropriate mystery books. As with all books being presented to students, there must be careful consideration as the the level of suspense appropriate to your students' particular age level. When in doubt, look towards the books that have been honored with one of the major mystery awards.