Famous mysteries that have endured for decades will delight kids
A strand of hair, a broken bone, and a girl who hid from the sunlight for two years. They all represent mysteries that have endured for decades, even centuries. Three fascinating new books detail these mind-twisters and will delight kids who love a good puzzle.
Most people regard Ludwig Beethoven as one of the world’s greatest classical composers. But did they realize that he didn’t always hear the music he made? Even when the maestro became almost completely deaf, he continued to compose. Beethoven knew something was horribly wrong. Why was he always so ill? Why did he grow deaf? Why was his behavior unpredictable and often offensive?
In The Mysteries of Beethoven’s Hair (Charlesbridge, 2009, Grades 5-8), Russell Martin and Lydia Nibley follow the trail of one of Ludwig’s locks as it makes its way into the hands of modern forensic scientists. Shortly after Beethoven’s death, a teenage fan, Ferdinand Hiller, cut off a lock of the composer’s hair, at the time considered a respectful way to remember the departed. Hiller had the hair framed in a locket and gave it to his grown son as a birthday present.
The locket ended up with a Danish physician who helped Jews flee Nazi Germany. Years later, his adopted daughter needed money, so he sold the hair at auction. That’s when the forensic experts entered the scene—maybe they could solve the mystery of Beethoven’s illness.
James L. Swanson’s Chasing Lincoln’s Killer (Scholastic, 2009, Grades 5–Up) describes a completely different kind of puzzle. Two days after the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the White House, not gloating, just celebrating the end of the horrible conflict. John Wilkes Booth, a famous actor, was in the audience and told his friend, “That is the last speech he will ever give.” He meant it.
But Booth’s plans were upset by a number of small details. After the famous, fatal shot at Ford’s Theatre, Booth leapt from the president’s box and onto the stage, but his boots caught on a drapery and he hit the stage hard. His leg broke. Booth needed medical attention, and he needed to hide.
The assassin managed to elude his searchers for 12 full days. He never got far from Washington, D. C. Swanson lets the hunt unfold in a smooth, suspenseful manner. We watch Booth sweat it out as the searchers slowly close in on him.
In Susan Goldman Rubin’s The Anne Frank Case: Simon Wiesenthal’s Search for the Truth (Holiday House, 2009, Grades 6–8), another search is described, but Anne Frank isn’t the investigator’s goal. Instead, the puzzle involves proving an unknown man’s existence. By the late 1950s, many people, especially Germans, denied that the Holocaust took place. Protesters demonstrated at the play The Diary of Anne Frank. They yelled and dropped leaflets claiming Anne Frank never existed. She was simply a fictional character, they said, created to drum up sympathy and financial support for Jewish people.
Famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal, himself a survivor of three concentration camps, was called in to help calm the situation. He spoke with teenagers who agreed with the protesters. He asked a young friend what it would take to convince him that Frank’s story was true. Would his friend believe it if Wiesenthal could find the Gestapo agent who actually arrested the Franks? His friend said only if the man himself admitted to it.
And Wiesenthal was off to solve the mystery.
Was the agent still alive? How could Wiesenthal ever find him? How could he possibly ever learn even his name?
The good thing is that there’s a resolution to each of the tales. But you’ll need to read these terrific books to find their endings, turning the pages breathlessly, reminding yourself that this excitement will help build the curious minds of your awestruck booktalk audience.