MMGM: Crack the Code! Puzzletastic Mysteries and Creating Your Own Language

Do you like stories with codes or deciphering ciphers? One of my favorite things about the middle grade mystery genre is that there’s rarely a dead body, since I tend to be a bit squeamish. The focus in middle grade mysteries is usually solving a theft or finding a treasure. 

And that almost always that involves a code.

Today I’m featuring two middle grade books, one is fiction, a collection of short stories, and the other is nonfiction. 

If you like your middle grade mysteries in short doses, check out Chris Grabenstein Presents Super Puzzletastic Mysterties: Short Stories for Young Sleuths from Mystery Writers of America! (Whew, that’s quite a title!) If you’ve ever wanted to learn how to write your own secret codes, you’ll love Create Your Own Secret Language: Invent Codes, Ciphers, Hidden Message, and More: A Beginner’s Guide by David J. Peterson with Illustrations by Ryan Goldsberry. (Another long title!)

 

Synopsis of Puzzletastic Mysteries:

From tales of hapless superheroes and stolen squirrel monkeys to murderous triplets and haunted basements, these thrilling, puzzling, and hilarious cases have one thing in common—YOU get a chance to be the detective before the author reveals the solution.

With twenty-never-before-published mystery stories, this collection will leave young detectives sleuthing for more!

Featuring stories by Chris Grabenstein, Sheela Chari, Stuart Gibbs, Lamar Giles, Bruce Hale, Peter Lerangis, Lauren Magaziner, Kate Milford, James Ponti, Tyler Whitesides, and ten other incredible authors. (from Grabenstein's website)

My Take 

I picked this book up initially because I wanted to read another tale solved by Julian and Margaret from the Framed series by James Ponti. But I ended up enjoying so many more of the stories. I loved the humor (especially in Grabenstein’s story about solving who wrote the word FART in the snow). I loved the history and mystery of the story about the cats of Hemingway house by Sheela Chari. (Chari is of my favorite writers--check out her wonderful musical mystery Vanished, if you haven't already). Many of these stories include codes, which are well laid out, so you can solve it along with the kid sleuth. The stories are certainly short enough to use for a read aloud at home or at school. As a bonus, the ending of each story is in the back, which gives kids a chance to solve it on their own, before checking. 

 

Synopsis of Create Your Own Secret Language:

Protect your diary from snooping siblings. Share your secrets with a BFF. Guard your texts from unwanted eyes. Create the lingua franca for your own fantastical secret world!

Expert language creator David J. Peterson (inventor of languages for Game of Thrones, the Marvel Universe, and more) guides you as you create your own secret languages, codes, ciphers, and hidden messages. 

From simple cyphers to entirely new alphabets, CREATE YOUR OWN SECRET LANGUAGE will help you master the skills of secret communication, whether it’s written, drawn, or spoken. By the time your finished reading, you’ll be able to share messages memora vosak laz vos otihoe vosecchi! (“that no one will be able to understand!")

 (from Amazon)

 

My Take 

 

I initially picked up this book because I wanted some inspiration for a story idea that might involve a code or cipher. (They are different, as I’ve now learned). The book is written as a workbook, so kids can practice writing and deciphering the ciphers right in the book. Also, at the end, Peterson walks kids through creating their own language! I had fun creating a cipher for my older son, who just graduated with a math minor. That gave me some insight into how my own characters might solve their cipher. It’s a fun read and very hands-on and interactive. My only caveat is that I felt like the sentences given for coding were a little snarky for my taste. So, I would change those or clarify that if I was using this as a teacher or in a homeschool setting. 

This is exactly the kind of book my math-loving son would have loved as a preteen.

 

Max’s take (out of a 5 bone scale)

Max, the Reading Dog*

 

 

 

 

 

 🦴🦴

Both books had cats, but no dogs. The code and cipher book was a little too complicated for me. But I’d love to see more mysteries with dogs. Don’t they know how good I’d be at sniffing out a thief?
 

Your Turn: 

Do you like solving codes or ciphers? Do you like reading or writing short stories? Any book recs for me or Max?

 

 

Check out other fabulous middle grades at Always in the Middle!