Smart Kids Read Mystery Novels

Reading a good mystery novel is more than just a way to pass the time. There are components of reading a mystery novel that can actually help support stronger brain development in kids, which can help increase other necessary skills for life including social skills, problem solving, and even logical reasoning. Here are a few reasons having kids read mystery novels can help enhance their learning. 

Reading Builds the Brain

A mystery novel is a specific genre of literature, but it's still a book. Reading is a skill that can help enhance other aspects of a child's learning. Reading is a learning process like any other. It requires absorbing and processing new information for later use. When a child is reading any kind of book on a regular basis, they are regularly exercising the parts of their brain that are involved with learning. Mystery novels simply add more specific stimulus to certain areas of the brain. 

Mystery Novels Help Kids Develop Creativity

When a mystery novel ends and a child has realized who the killer was, what happened to the school mascot costume, or how an inmate escaped from prison, they're opened up to a new way of thinking about things. The "aha!" moment that happens when the child realizes the solution to a mystery means their way of thinking has been opened slightly.

This broadening of problem-solving methods happens more and more with every mystery novel your child reads.This further strengthens a child's ability to think "outside the box," apply new information to old problems, and apply old information to newer issues in fresh ways

Mystery Novels Help Kids Develop Basic Logic

It can be difficult for children to understand basic logic at very young ages. They may have trouble with why some of their behavior requires punitive responses and others lead to rewards and praise. However, reading mystery novels can help children develop basic logic, commonly referred to as "common sense". They will have to use basic logic all throughout the novel in order to try to keep up with a list of suspects. They can only eliminate possible culprits when the suspects' methods and motives stop making sense. Even when they believe a particular character could be to blame, the end of the book usually helps them understand why their logic was flawed ("Oh, I forgot! Jax couldn't have taken Mrs. Cullen's ring that night because he was still away at summer camp!").

Many great mystery writers take pride in no one ever being able to figure out the solution to their mystery until the last several pages of their novels. Others focus more on showing the reader how something was done, without much regard for protecting the identity of who did it. Either way, having your children engage in the learning that the best mystery novels have to offer on a consistent basis can help them develop skills and ideas that can lead to a successful social and academic life. 


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