Little Bookworm: Mystery by Gabbi Calabrese, Helen Dardik & Thamires Paredes

OMG, this is such a cute introduction to the mystery genre! While I wouldn’t say that it is a mystery in itself, it is a delightful deconstruction of what mystery stories are. Is it, perhaps, more theoretical than the average young reader would care for, especially the board book target audience? Insofar as this is the kind of book that almost definitely requires that there be an adult reading it to/with a young child, it’s really more about sharing an interest together than it is about teaching a child the basics of reading.

So yes, it’s a little advanced text-wise but it’s also really fun illustrations-wise, especially if we’re not trying to teach kids how to read from it. Some of the lettering is extremely busy, but if you treat this as an experience instead of a primer, it really works in getting kids to learn about and understand the super-popular mystery genre. This is the kind of book you buy because you want to share your love of reading with a kid who will hopefully go on to develop their own lasting love affair with mysteries.

As a book critic specializing in crime fiction, this is absolutely up my alley. The book breaks down the general format of the mystery in accessible language, illustrating everything with bright colors and bold, often anthropomorphic figures. This is all done in a kid-friendly manner, which is why it’s weird to me that none of the giants of mysteries for younger readers are mentioned in the closing pages. You have rightful tributes to Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle, but no mention of authors who wrote specifically for children (John Grisham aside, but I highly doubt that his Theodore Boone mystery series is the reason he’s been included in this list.) I get that Carolyn Keene and Franklin W Dixon were pseudonyms for a stable of house writers and not actual people, but Donald J Sobol, Enid Blyton and David A Adler all exist, with books a child is far more likely to read than works by Gillian Flynn, who is name-checked here but who, to date, has not written anything for that market. And I love Ms Flynn! She’s great at what she does, but I would never recommend her books to anyone who isn’t a sophisticated reader, regardless of age.

That quibble aside, this is a cute little introduction to the genre for young readers and budding detectives that perfectly captures why so many people love reading mysteries, your reviewer included.

Little Bookworm: Mystery by Gabbi Calabrese, Helen Dardik & Thamires Paredes was published September 1 2026 by Duopress and is available from all good booksellers, including