About the Holiday

Have you felt something odd, eerie, or just plain puzzling in the air lately? That’s to be expected as May is all about mysteries! Established in 2009 by Booklist, which is part of the American Library Association, Mystery Month highlights all things mysterious and offers webinars, articles, awards, recommendations, and more! Mysteries, with their unusual situations, puzzling clues, usual suspects, and plenty of unexplained phenomena, are great for getting kids—even reluctant readers—to fall in love with books. With so many classic and new mysteries to investigate, this month’s celebration may just last all summer! And if you like your mysteries fun and educational, you’ll love today’s book!

Thanks to Chronicle Books for sending me a copy of Sleuth & Solve History for review consideration. All opinions on the book are my own.

Sleuth & Solve History: 20+ Mind-Twisting Mysteries

By Victor Escandell

Historical fiction allows us to revisit real-life events in the past through characters and stories that resonate with today’s readers. The mysteries presented in this clever book do just that! Inspired by actual civilizations, people, inventions, and circumstances, each mystery asks you to tackle a perplexing or thought-provoking question and come up with an answer. The puzzlers are divided into two types: those that require a bit of logical thinking, and those that prompt you to use your imagination. They’re also graded on a point system from very easy to very difficult to give your brain a good workout. Each difficulty level is worth a different number of points from 10 to 60.

You can read this book or use it in various ways too, from solving each puzzle by yourself or making a game out of it for family fun night or in teams with friends or in a classroom. You’ll find mysteries old and new from Prehistoric times (200,000 – 4000 B.C.), the Old Ages (4000 B.C. – A.D. 476), the Middle Ages (A.D. 500 – 1400), the Modern Era (A.D. 1400 – 1800), and the Contemporary Era (1800 – Today).

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Each two-page mystery is introduced with a snippet of nonfiction information about a tradition, event, person, ideology, or innovation. The problem to be solved is then told as a story in numbered steps that contain clues and are easy to follow. The mysteries are also accompanied by Victor Escandell’s humorous cartoon illustrations that readers will want to study carefully, because they also contain cunning hints that will help readers find the answer. Have you read the historical paragraph? Digested the story? Scoured the illustrations? Devised an answer? Then it’s time to divulge your thoughts and see if you’re right! Each answer is revealed under a pull-down flap on the second page.

Younger kids will enjoy solving the Stone Age case of the missing meat, discovering the Mona Lisa’s real name, and showing off their good sense of direction by helping out Robin Hood’s band of Merry Men. Older kids and adults will want to match wits with an Egyptian pharaoh, the great Athenian statesman Pericles, and even Sherlock Holmes. They can also decipher a secret code from World War II and discover a Space Station astronauts new password.

Future detectives can mull over the trickiest conundrums that occur during a Mesolithic Era hunting expedition, a Babylonian bargaining, a Barbarian chase, and a Parisian jewel robbery. They can even conjure up solutions to challenges from Thomas Edison and Harry Houdini.

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Victor Escandell’s easy-going storytelling will spark kids’ interest in learning more about long-ago times which still influence our lives today. Sleuth & Solve History would be a fun and engaging way to start off classroom or homeschool lessons in history, science, and logic. The book’s appeal to a wide age range of readers, makes it a perfect addition to home, school, and public library bookshelves. You’ll also want to check out the original Sleuth & Solve: 20+ Mind-Twisting Mysteries for more fun!

Ages 8 – 12 and up

Chronicle Books, 2020 | ISBN 978-1452180076

Discover more about Victor Escandell, his books, and his art on his website.