Children's books and activities

Detectives and Explorers

Do you know any young sleuths, adventure-seekers, or explorers? We've gathered up a great collection of books, activities, apps, and websites for learning all about detectives and explorers.

Try pairing fiction with nonfiction books and exploring different genres (like poetry and biographies) and formats (like graphic novels and audio books). You'll be creating your own "text sets" — collections of texts focused on a specific topic, such as detectives and explorers. Reading widely in this way helps children build background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

You might also want to explore DIY Science Camp: Archaeology.

Detectives and Explorers

Great Fiction & Nonfiction Books

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Alphabet Mystery

By:
Audrey Wood

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Clothesline Clues to Jobs People Do

By:
Katherine Heling
, Deborah Hembrook
Illustrated by: Andy Davies

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Follow That Map! A First Look at Mapping Skills

By:
Scot Ritchie

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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I Spy Mystery: A Book of Picture Riddles

By:
Jean Marzollo
Illustrated by: Walter Wick

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Polo: The Runaway Book

By:
Regis Faller

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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When You Wander: A Search-and-Rescue Dog Story

By:
Margarita Engle
Illustrated by: Mary Morgan

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Why?

By:
Richard Torrey

Age Level: 3-6 years old

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Young Cam Jansen and the Lost Tooth

By:
David Adler
Illustrated by: Susanna Natti

Age Level: 3-6 years old

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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7 Ate 9

By:
Tara Lazar
Illustrated by: Ross MacDonald

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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A Big Day for Baseball

By:
Mary Pope Osborne

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Ace Lacewing: Bug Detective

By:
David Biedrzycki

Age Level: 6-9 years old

cover of "Archeologists Dig for Clues" showing kids looking at a dig grid map

Archaeologists Dig for Clues

By:
Kate Duke

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Around the World: Three Remarkable Journeys

By:
Matt Phelan

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Baby Monkey, Private Eye

By:
Brian Selznick
, David Serlin

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Barnum's Bones: How Barnum Brown Discovered the Most Famous Dinosaur in the World

By:
Tracey Fern
Illustrated by: Boris Kulikov

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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By the Great Horn Spoon!

By:
Sid Fleischman

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Cam Jansen and the Green School Mystery

By:
David Adler
Illustrated by: Joy Allen

Age Level: 6-9 years old

illustrated cover of Chasing Vermeer showing a boy holding a flashlight and a woman inside a museum.

Chasing Vermeer

By:
Blue Balliett
Illustrated by: Brett Helquist

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Chet Gecko, Private Eye Series

By:
Bruce Hale

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Dare the Wind: The Record-breaking Voyage of Eleanor Prentiss and the Flying Cloud

By:
Tracey Fern
Illustrated by: Emily Arnold McCully

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation

By:
Mark Teague

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Encyclopedia Brown Series

By:
Donald Sobol

Age Level: 6-9 years old

cover of "Flotsam" showing a fish's eye

Flotsam

By:
David Wiesner

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Gold in the Hills: A Tale of the Klondike Gold Rush

By:
Candice Ransom
Illustrated by: Greg Call

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Hermelin the Detective Mouse

By:
Mini Grey

Age Level: 6-9 years old

cover of "How the Sphinx Got to the Museum" showing stages of the journey

How the Sphinx Got to the Museum

By:
Jessie Hartland

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Hurricane

By:
David Wiesner
Illustrated by: David Wiesner

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Julian, Secret Agent

By:
Ann Cameron
Illustrated by: Diane Allison

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Keep On! The Story of Matthew Henson

By:
Deborah Hopkinson
Illustrated by: Stephen Alcorn

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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King & Kayla and the Case of the Secret Code

By:
Dori Hillestad Butler
Illustrated by: Nancy Meyers

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Letters from Camp: A Mystery

By:
Kate Klise
Illustrated by: M. Sarah Klise

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Melonhead and the Undercover Operation

By:
Katy Kelly
Illustrated by: Gillian Johnson

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Monster Hunt: Exploring Mysterious Creatures

By:
Jim Arnosky

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11

By:
Brian Floca

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Mrs. Harkness and the Panda

By:
Alicia Porter
Illustrated by: Melissa Sweet

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Nate the Great

By:
Marjorie Weinman Sharmat

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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Patterns in Peru: An Adventure in Patterning

By:
Cindy Neuschwander
Illustrated by: Bryan Langdo

Age Level: 6-9 years old

cover of "Seeker of Knowledge" showing man looking at hieroglyphics

Seeker of Knowledge: The Man Who Deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphs

By:
James Rumford

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Sharuko: El Arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello / Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello

By:
Monica Brown
Illustrated by: Elisa Chavarri

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Super Sniffers: Dog Detectives On the Job

By:
Dorothy Hinshaw Hinshaw Patent

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Boxcar Children: Houseboat Mystery

By:
Gertrude Chandler Warner

Age Level: 6-9 years old

photo cover of The Buzz on Bees showing bee against blue sky

The Buzz on Bees: Why Are They Disappearing?

By:
Shelly Rotner
, Anne Woodhull

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Capital Catch (Ballpark Mysteries)

By:
David A. Kelly
Illustrated by: Mark Meyers

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Dinosaur Museum

By:
National Geographic
Illustrated by: Sebastian Quigley

Age Level: 6-9 years old

illustrated cover of The Great Art Caper showing splattered paint and a hamster with a paint brush

The Great Art Caper

By:
Victoria Jamieson

Age Level: 6-9 years old

illustrated cover of "The Museum Book" showing the front of a columned building

The Museum Book: A Guide to Strange and Wonderful Collections

By:
Jan Mark
Illustrated by: Richard Holland

Age Level: 6-9 years old

illustrated cover of The Secret Cave showing person holding lantern as they enter a cave.

The Secret Cave: Discovering Lascaux

By:
Emily Arnold McCully

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Stunning Science of Everything: Science with the Squishy Bits Left In

By:
Nick Arnold
, Tony De Saulles

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Talking T. Rex (An A to Z Mystery)

By:
Ron Roy
Illustrated by: Jon Steven Gurney

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Top of the World: Climbing Mount Everest

By:
Steve Jenkins

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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The Wrigley Riddle

By:
David Kelly

Age Level: 6-9 years old

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What Darwin Saw: The Journey that Changed the World

By:
Rosalyn Schanzer

Age Level: 6-9 years old

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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cover of Archaeolo for Kids showing images including the Spinx and hieroglyphics.

Archaeology for Kids

By:
Richard Panchyk

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Dinosaurs: Fossils and Feathers (Science Comics Series)

By:
MK Reed
Illustrated by: Joe Flood

Age Level: 9-12 years old

illustrated cover of Exploring Space showing a space rover.

Exploring Space: From Galileo to the Mars Rover and Beyond

By:
Martin Jenkins
Illustrated by: Stephen Biesty

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Flush

By:
Carl Hiaasen

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Historium: Welcome to the Museum

By:
Jo Nelson
Illustrated by: Richard Wilkinson

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Homer on the Case

By:
Henry Cole

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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How We Crossed the West: The Adventures of Lewis and Clark

By:
Rosalyn Schanzer

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer

By:
Carole Boston Weatherford
Illustrated by: Eric Velasquez

Age Level: 9-12 years old

cover of "If Stones Could Speak" showing a photo of Stonehenge

If Stones Could Speak: Unlocking the Secrets of Stonehenge

By:
Marc Aronson

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Illustrated cover of Lost In Outer Space showing spaceship and debris in space.

Lost in Outer Space: The Incredible Journey of Apollo 13

By:
Tod Olson

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Mr. Chickee's Funny Money

By:
Christopher Paul Curtis

Age Level: 9-12 years old

cover of "Muddy Max" showing a boy half covered in mud. The muddy side has large muscles

Muddy Max: The Mystery of Marsh Creek

By:
Elizabeth Rusch
Illustrated by: Mike Lawrence

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Park Scientists: Gila Monsters, Geysers, and Grizzly Bears in America’s Own Backyard

By:
Mary Kay Carson
Illustrated by: Tom Uhlman

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Real Pigeons Fight Crime

By:
Andrew McDonald
Illustrated by: Ben Wood

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Saving Kabul Corner

By:
N.H. Senzai

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Secret Coders

By:
Gene Yang
Illustrated by: Mike Holmes

Age Level: 9-12 years old

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Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences

By:
Gene Luen Yang
Illustrated by: Mike Holmes

Age Level: 9-12 years old

illustrated cover of "The Secrets of Stonehenge" showing stonhenge

Secrets of Stonehenge

By:
Mick Manning
Illustrated by: Brita Granström

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Sharuko: Peruvian Archaeologist Julio C. Tello / El Arqueólogo Peruano Julio C. Tello

By:
Monica Brown
Illustrated by: Elisa Chavarri

Age Level: 9-12 years old

cover of "Stones, Bones, and Petroglyphs" showing a lizard on a rock in fron of a valley

Stones, Bones, and Petroglyphs: Digging into Southwest Archaeology

By:
Susan Goodwin

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Tesla’s Attic

By:
Neal Shusterman
Illustrated by: Eric Elfman

Age Level: 9-12 years old

Cover of the 5000-year-old Puzzle showing a boy surrounded by postcards, newspapers, and pyramids.

The 5,000-Year-Old Puzzle: Solving a Mystery of Ancient Egypt

By:
Claudi Logan
Illustrated by: Melissa Sweet

Age Level: 9-12 years old

cover of "The Mighty Mars Rovers" showing a photo of a mars rover

The Mighty Mars Rovers

By:
Elizabeth Rusch

Age Level: 9-12 years old