Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman - Just after twelve-year-old Emily and her family move to San Francisco, she teams up with new friend James to follow clues in an odd book they find, hoping to figure out its secrets

This gum for hire : from the tattered casebook of Chet Gecko, private eye by Bruce Hale - Private eye Chet Gecko sets out to solve the mystery of Emerson Hicky Elementary School's disappearing football players

Three times lucky by Sheila Turnage - Washed ashore in tiny Tupelo Landing, North Carolina, Mo LoBeau, now eleven, and her best friend, Dale, turn detective when the amnesiac Colonel seems implicated in a murder

Sammy Keyes and the hotel thief by Wendelin Van Draanen - Thirteen-year-old Sammy's penchant for speaking her mind gets her in trouble when she involves herself in the investigation of a robbery

The boxcar children by Gertrude Chandler Warner - The Aldens begin their adventure by making a home in a boxcar. Their goal is to stay together, and in the process they find a grandfather