I Love That the Edgar Statue Sports a Donald Duck Neckerchief

How many middle grade mysteries have you read this year?

I've read one. Uno. Less than two and more than zero. So my question to you is this: Mysteries sell really really well sometimes, yes? Chasing Vermeer, for example, made its money back and it wasn't even that great of a mystery. And sure, the first Enola Holmes book didn't get the attention it so surely deserved, but by and large I get a ton of kids coming into my branch asking for mysteries. And nine times out of ten I have to point them in the direction of the series books because middle grade mysteries are few and far between. Why is this? Are they hard to write? Are publishers just blind to this trend? What gives?

All this is to say that the Edgar Awards were announced last week. And for the young 'uns, two wins.

YA Winner:
Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready

Juvenile Winner:
Room One: a mystery or two by Andrew Clements

Well done all around then. That would be a fun committee to be on, don't you think? The juvenile Edgar Award committee. I'd like that. And for an encapsulation of the evening of the awards you may indulge yourself in either the Edgar bulletpoints or first-time children's novelist Eric Berlin's take right over here.