It's No Mystery—Reading's Fun with A to Z

One of the things I take great pride in is our daily habit of settling down at the end of the day and reading for at least a half hour. This is something I've done with both my children since they were old enough to sit up and look like they were paying attention. I think it's partly responsible for the fact that my son is a pretty advanced reader for his age, too. It's also responsible for helping to instill the idea that reading is a fun form of entertainment, as well as a necessary life skill. It also gives my wife a priceless daily moment of "me time" after being around two small kids all day.

These days, our current nightly reading repertoire is dominated by the A to Z Mysteries series of books by Ron Roy. If you've never heard of them, you probably will at some point. The A to Z Mysteries are aimed at about the second- or third-grade level, and, as the name implies, are mysteries that are solved by a team of ordinary third-graders from fictional Green Lawn, Connecticut who just happen to have a natural aptitude for detective work. Each book—there are 26 in all, but you probably figured that out already—has a title tied into a letter of the alphabet, such as The Absent Author, The Jaguar's Jewel, or The Zombie Zone.

The books and their characters are largely squeaky-clean; there are no wisecracking disrespectful tweens here, just normal schoolkids going about their lives doing things that kids do. There's no violence or fighting and not too many really scary situations. The bad guys are usually pretty creative, although I've gotten to the point where I can pretty much figure out the solution to the mystery by the third chapter or so. The formulaic nature of the stories doesn't seem to bother kids, though, since the A to Z books keep coming home from the library.

While we usually read them together, the A to Z Mysteries are really intended to be readable by intermediate readers. My first-grader has actually sat down and read a title through from cover to cover, without even getting up from the living room sofa. We of course ended up re-reading it at night before it had to go back to the library.

Author Ron Roy also has a couple other series out, including the Capital Mysteries, which, as you've probably guessed by now, feature a couple of third-graders—one of whom happens to be the president's step-daughter— solving mysteries in and around Washington, D.C. (There's actually a book where the characters from the two series converge, kind of like when Simon and Simon showed up on Magnum, P.I. Remember that?)

They're highly recommended, and I actually find that I'm enjoying them, too. You can find most of the titles at your local library, or you can browse them at Amazon.com. If you want to go whole-hog, you can buy full 26-book set! Actually, there are a few newer books in the series that go beyond the 26-title limit, so you can rest assured knowing that you can keep reading on after Z.