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Mysteries for Young Sleuths with Lori Briley Fairchild
215 Plays10 months ago
In this week's episode, Brook and Sarah are joined by middle-grade author Lori Briley Fairchild to speak about what goes into a mystery for young sleuths.
Discussed
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective (1963) Donald J. Sobol
Nancy Drew Mystery Stories (1930-2003) Carolyn Keene
Hardy Boys Mystery Stories (1927-2005) Franklin W. Dixon
Agatha Christie
Enid Blyton
Trixie Belden Mysteries (1948-1986)
Bobbsey Twins (1904-1979) Laura Lee Hope
A to Z Mysteries (1997-2005) Ron Roy
Harriet the Spy (1964) Louise Fitzhugh
The InvestiGators (2020-2024) John Patrick Green
Aven Green, Sleuthing Machine (2021) Dusti Bowling
Good Omens (1990) Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Lori Briley Fairchild
Website: https://www.ldfairchildauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LDFairchild/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/l.d.fairchild/
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Music: Signs To Nowhere by Shane Ivers – www.silvermansound.com
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Transcript
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Transcript
Introduction of Special Guest Lori Briley Fairchild
00:00:10
Speaker
Welcome to Clued in Mystery. I'm Sarah. And I'm Brooke, and we both love mystery. Hi Brooke. Hi Sarah, we have a special guest today. I'm very excited. Yeah, today we're going to be talking with Lori Briley Fairchild. Would you like to introduce her, Sarah?
00:00:31
Speaker
Absolutely. Lori Briley Fairchild is a writer of young adult dystopian novels and children's mysteries. After 20 years as a freelance writer, editor, and mom, she decided it was time to chase her own dreams of becoming a successful author. She hails from the Kansas City area, and it's okay if you're not sure if it's in Kansas or Missouri. Sometimes she doesn't know either.
00:00:53
Speaker
When she's not writing, she's probably watching sports. She loves the Boston Red Sox and the Kansas City Chiefs. Or Dr. Who, her favorite doctor is the 10th, wondering why her husband plays his music so loud, or working at her other full-time job of professional ear scratcher for her two dogs whose names are Yes, Buddy, and Panda.
Exploring Children's Mysteries and Influences
00:01:12
Speaker
Yes, because today we're going to be talking about young sleuths for young readers, and Buddy and Panda are the stars of Lori Briley's Kids Mysteries. And so many of us started our love of mystery at a very young age. When other kids were fascinated with superheroes or popular cartoon characters, us mystery buffs were pretending to be Encyclopedia Brown or Harriet the Spy.
00:01:38
Speaker
But before young sleuthers can graduate to even Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, they need puzzling cases to solve appropriate for their ages, according to their reading levels, and all about their interests. And that's what we'll be talking about today with Lori, who among other things, writes mysteries, especially for budding mystery fans. Welcome, Lori. Hi, thanks for having me.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, this is going to be great. All three of us are moms and have been mystery buffs since we were kids. So this is just a really fun topic. We've got multi-generational experience with this, right? Absolutely. So speaking of that, Lori, what were some of your favorite mysteries to read when you were a kid? Um, so I was a big Encyclopedia Brown fan. I think I read every single one of those. And then, um,
00:02:29
Speaker
great brain. I loved all of those. And then I love to read from like a super young age. And so I read like above my grade level. And I got into Agatha Christie really early. My mom was like, Sure, you can read my mystery. So, but yeah, Encyclopedia Brown and then those two minute mysteries, my, my, one of my grade school teachers used to like, you know, pop those out just for, you know,
00:02:56
Speaker
in between things. And I loved those. I would sit there and puzzle over them and try and figure them out. So those were my favorites. I too loved Encyclopedia Brown. That was my go-to group of books when I got to go to the library in primary school.
00:03:14
Speaker
Yeah, me too. What about you, Sarah? Yeah, I'm trying to think. I don't think I actually read any Encyclopedia Brown. I did read some to prepare for this conversation, though. And reading it, I was fairly certain that I hadn't read that in the past. Definitely read Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys when I was younger. But I think, like you, Laurie, I think I was reading Agatha Christie probably a little earlier than I should.
00:03:44
Speaker
And I read a lot of Enid Blyton and her mysteries. Yeah, I also like Trixie Belden and the Bobsy twins. My mom had the like the entire set of the Bobsy twins and so she that she handed those off to
Lori's Writing Journey and Inspirations
00:03:59
Speaker
me.
00:03:59
Speaker
I had a similar experience because I grew up basically across the street from my grandparents and they had kept their kids books in the basement. So I used it as my little library and I'd go down and they had a lot of Bob C twins, a couple of Trixie Belden's. I think that's probably where I got introduced to Nancy Drew was from that collection. So super fun. So Lori, what inspired you to write for kids instead of mysteries for adults?
00:04:26
Speaker
And so I love children's literature. Like, that is just something that I love to read and to, to enjoy. When my kids were little, I was like, yes, I have a reason to read these books. And so, you know, I started out writing Young Adult Dystopian, because that's another genre that I just absolutely adore. But then my mom asked me if I would write a book about our dog, Buddy.
00:04:54
Speaker
He's a German short-haired pointer. And unfortunately, he actually passed away about a year ago. But he is living on in our books. But she's like, he needs his own book. And I was like, OK. And then, of course, when I started thinking about it, I was like, well, Buddy clearly belongs in a children's book. And I was like, well, of course I'm going to write a mystery because that's one of my favorite children's genres. And so that it just kind of evolved from there to be
00:05:24
Speaker
mysteries for kids and really like my kids really enjoyed like the A to Z mysteries when they were growing up and like there was the other set that was like Washington DC I think I can't remember exactly they read so many um and I really liked that whole idea of like a series where like you you know kept the same characters all along and whatever and so um so I wrote the first book honestly just to please my mom and I was like well that was a lot of fun I think I'll do it some more
00:05:52
Speaker
So the other thing about my books is that this particular series of books is about a little girl who plays hockey. She's the one that owns Buddy and Panda. And my youngest still plays ice hockey.
Representation in Children's Literature
00:06:04
Speaker
She's grown.
00:06:06
Speaker
When she was growing up, there were no books that featured girls who played hockey. And so part of my idea behind these books was if I was going to write books for kids, then I wanted them to like really mean something as well. I mean, I wanted them to be fun, but I wanted them to have a purpose beyond that. And I remembered being so frustrated trying to find something that where she could see herself. And so one of my goals with this was that there be books for little girls who play hockey where they can see themselves that it's not abnormal. Like it's not something weird. People, you know, there are other girls that do this.
00:06:36
Speaker
I think that that's a shift maybe from the books that we would have been reading when we were younger to the books that are available now. I know with my son, who's still pretty young, he loves reading mystery books. And when he heard about the conversation that we were going to be having today, he gave me a stack of books that he thought I should talk about. And one of them, which he's reading right now,
00:07:02
Speaker
is called Avon Green's sleuthing machine and the character was born without arms and you know it's just a part of her life and she's very clever sleuth. I think what you were saying Laurie about you know having books that people can see themselves it's it's we're seeing a lot more of that.
00:07:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's really true. And I think it's really important. So when my youngest was growing up, she was literally, we live in Kansas City, we are not a hockey hotbed of the world here. And so she was literally the only girl in the entire organization that played hockey.
00:07:37
Speaker
And I am a firm believer that you cannot be what you cannot see. And so we know several little girls that started playing hockey because they saw her on the ice, right? And just being able to see yourself, you know, seeing the things that you do and the things that you love to do are so important. And then to put it into a context that's just fun, right? Like that's not the point of the story, right? The point of the story is the mystery.
00:08:03
Speaker
But, you know, when a little girl reads, that plays hockey, reads it and sees, you know, this other little girl maybe as kind of a side story, having trouble with, you know, a boy, you know, being mean to her or whatever and having to deal with that. Well, like, they realize, okay, well, this is, you know, a piece of life. And sure, it's in the context of the story, but you should be able to see that, right? Like, everyone should be able to see themselves in a book at some point.
00:08:32
Speaker
I love that, Lori. I think that we need a t-shirt that says, you cannot be what you cannot see. It's so true. I have a similar situation in living in a very rural place where you don't have a lot of the same resources for activities or coaching or anything like that. If you're involved in one of those, whether it's sports or music or whatever the activity is, if you
00:08:56
Speaker
you probably don't have a lot of people who are engaged in the same activity. So I think even if it's not hockey, a child can read that and be like, oh yeah, I felt like that too because I like this thing and I don't know anyone else in my surroundings that likes it. And it's just a really great way to make common ground. The other thing I like about your books, first of all, I will say that I definitely get that
00:09:22
Speaker
same feeling when I read your books as I did when I read the Harriet the Spy and Encyclopedia Brown. You've really captured that tone of kids' mysteries. Yeah, you're welcome. I also like that they're good for boys and for girls. I feel like a lot of children's literature is one or the other. They're either a pink, foofy cover or they're a blue and red.
00:09:49
Speaker
Meant to be gendered for boys and I love that this is a series that boys and girls alike and they're not it's not pigeonholed in that way Yeah, I think
00:10:00
Speaker
People ask me all the time, like, well, is this just a series for girls? And I always tell them, I was like, it's not because there's plenty for everybody, right? Because the story is told from the dog's point of view, right? So that kind of ungenders it right away. But I feel like there's things that
Writing Techniques for Engaging Young Readers
00:10:18
Speaker
girls can take away from it and there's things that boys can take away from it. And so, and I kind of did that deliberately because I think it's really good
00:10:26
Speaker
for guys to also maybe read a little bit about what girls go through, you know, in different ways. And the little girl has two friends. One is a girl and one is a boy. And I was trying to kind of get his viewpoint in a little bit as well so that it's kind of even. Because I did. I wanted it to be so that everybody could enjoy it. Because who doesn't want to read a book that, you know, the dog is telling the story? Absolutely.
00:10:55
Speaker
Well, are there certain conventions that authors have to abide by when they're writing for this age group? There's definite conventions for adult mysteries. Are there certain things that you had to make sure you worked in or structure that you needed to follow? I think it's mostly just about being aware that your audience ... My books are, I'd say, high reading second graders to about fifth grade. It's kind of the target audience for them.
00:11:25
Speaker
you have to be really aware of A, what those kids understand, right? Like, you know, they're not gonna get adult, you know, nuance, level nuance. Like the mysteries when you write for kids are so much more straightforward. I mean, sure you have like red herrings and stuff, like, you know, you don't wanna be like, oh, well, this is clearly the answer. But also you have to make it very kind of linear for them, right?
00:11:53
Speaker
the first book, the little girl's hockey stick goes missing, right? And well, clearly, nobody stole the stick, right? Because that's just not, you know, we're not going to get into, you know, charging 10 year olds with
00:12:08
Speaker
But you have to make sure, OK, well, that character appeared. And if that's going to be the conclusion of this, then that character has to be a fairly memorable. It doesn't have to be obvious. It just has to be memorable so that when they go back, when they see the end, they're like, oh, well, that makes sense, right? And so I think you have to do that more. I mean, you always have to make your mystery make sense for adults, too. But I think with kids, you have to just be very aware of,
00:12:38
Speaker
Okay, well, does, you know, if I'm 10, is this going to, you know, am I going to be able to follow this? The other thing is, is you have to be really aware of like how old your references are. In my latest book, I referenced Oscar the Grouch. And one of my good friends is a fourth grade teacher. And so I have it in him, like read all of them before I publish them. And he looked at me, he's like,
00:13:00
Speaker
I have to ask my kids if they know who Oscar the Grouch is. And I was like, oh, well, first off, that makes me sad. And second, I didn't even think that was like an old reference. I just thought everybody knew who Oscar the Grouch was. Turns out kids do still know who Oscar the Grouch is. Oh, good. Thank goodness.
00:13:17
Speaker
But yeah, I think it's more things like that. And you have to be very conscious of like, reading level. So mine are, I try to write at a fourth grade level. And I always read my books through a Luxile reader, which will tell you at what grade level you're writing at. So it's okay to write, you know, bigger words, but they have to be understandable to a fourth grader. And sometimes that's tricky.
00:13:42
Speaker
You mentioned series earlier, Lori, and we know that they're very popular with adult readers. Is the same true for younger readers? Yes. Kids love to have a book that they can then read more about. You can see, they're still writing Nancy Drew books today, right? Series for kids are definitely a benefit. And I think for kids especially,
00:14:08
Speaker
Like we love them as adults because we like to like follow the story through and whatever. A lot of series for kids don't have an extensive like storyline through this series, right? Like a lot of mystery series especially. Like my books don't have like a through line other than the fact that it's buddy and piano and it's these kids and everyone. So each one could be right kind of a standalone. But they're all tied together by the,
00:14:31
Speaker
characters in them and a lot of mystery series for kids are like that because for kids it's just it's less work to have to get to go into a book where you already know the characters right and so when you're learning to read things that are less work are helpful because then you can focus on what's actually going on in the story because kids in like
00:14:51
Speaker
You know, between like second and fourth grade, they're really learning things like cause and effect. They're learning, you know, their comprehension a lot of times doesn't match their reading level. Like they can probably read at a higher level than what they comprehend. And so you kind of have to be aware of that. And series for them make that easier, right? Like, okay, I don't have to think about the setting and I don't have to think about the characters. Like I already know who they are. So now all I have to do is worry about comprehending the story.
00:15:17
Speaker
And so I think they're really valuable for kids, especially as they're growing their reading skills. I do have to say from my experience, my son is a big fan of the Investigator
Evolution of Children's Mysteries
00:15:29
Speaker
series. I had not heard of them until you guys sent me that question. Like after you guys sent me that, I went out on their website and was looking around and they look fantastic.
00:15:41
Speaker
So what I like about them is because we read them together. I think there's a lot that's been written with the adult reader in mind. And so I'm chuckling. I'm not sure that he gets the reference, but it makes me laugh. And so it's not as tedious as some books for children can be. And so I'm quite happy for the next release to come out and for us to read it together.
00:16:09
Speaker
Sarah, since my child is past the stage, even the investigators, unfortunately, are there a lot of images and illustrations? Because that's something that came to my mind when I was reviewing some of the titles that I loved and my daughter loved, is illustrations can still be really important at this age group and help fortify the story.
00:16:29
Speaker
Yeah, so the investigators are graphic novels, and so the illustrations are really important. But I would say from, again, you know, my experience reading with my son, he likes it if there is an illustration, if not on every page, then every couple of pages, because that's still something that appeals to him. Yeah, that's one thing. Illustrations are just expensive when you're self-publishing, and so
00:17:00
Speaker
That's one thing I hope in the future is to be able to put more into my books, because right now mine don't have any, and that's simply not, it's not that I didn't want to put them in, it's just simply a factor of cost. When you have to pay for each one of those illustrations, it adds up really quickly.
00:17:18
Speaker
But you do have really informative covers, Lori. I really like that about, and I can remember as a kid, and even when I'm reading your books now, I flip back to look back. What does that little dog look like? And I want to go back and look at the characters that you have on the front. So that is really well done.
00:17:38
Speaker
Yeah, those covers are so funny. I actually sent the illustrator pictures of my dogs, and I was like, okay, they need to look like this, and I would get the sketch, and I would show it to my kids, and they'd be like, no, you got to fix this and fix that. It doesn't look quite like that. It was very funny. Well, we're seeing a renaissance in mystery in the adult space. I mean, I think it kind of got kicked off with the Knives Out franchise, and then we're seeing
Promoting Literacy and Love for Reading
00:18:04
Speaker
Agatha Christie movies remade. Do you feel like this is the same for the children's market? Is that trickling down? Honestly, I'm not sure mysteries ever went out of style for kids. They're just such a great format for kids.
00:18:25
Speaker
you know, you introduce the investigator, you throw out the clues, you try and figure out the mystery. Like, they're just, they're just perfectly set up for the way kids think, I think, you know, especially when they're learning, right? Like, you're trying to teach them those things, like, you know, okay, well, what do you think is going to happen next, right? And mysteries are just perfectly set up for that, right? Like, so who do you think did it? Or what do you think happened?
00:18:52
Speaker
And so I just don't feel like they ever went out of vogue for kids. I think they've changed since the Encyclopedia Brown days a little bit, but I don't think that they've ever been not popular with kids. Yeah, that's great. Can you tell us a little bit about that, Lori, about how you think they've changed since Encyclopedia Brown?
00:19:14
Speaker
know, just kind of keeping up with the times, you know, that Encyclopedia Brown was like going around and like he would have to see like the physical clues and that kind of stuff. Whereas, you know, a lot of times like the more modern mysteries, it's modern day, like they're finding the clues, you know, digitally or, you know, their phone. In my mysteries, one of the big things is, is this little girl is 10, and she doesn't have a phone, her parents won't get her one until she's 11. You know, that kind of thing, I think,
00:19:38
Speaker
I really think like just more technology, more trying to be more relevant to the kids. I mean, I think that the basic through line of, you know, something happens and you have to figure out what it is, is the same. But I think just, you know, as times have changed, technology has changed. And I also think like, you have to be like a little bit snappier with your writing. You got to move a little bit faster. Kids are used to like, you know, three minutes on the iPad and finding the answer kind of deal. And so I think that you just have to keep like
00:20:08
Speaker
moving the story along. Whereas I think when we were kids, and especially like back in like the 50s, Nancy Drew, there was a little more that more ability to create a world and a scene and a, and that, whereas now it's kind of like, okay, well, something has to happen here, or are you going to lose them?
00:20:29
Speaker
Lori, I can tell that you have a really great handle on the educational part of storytelling and what that can do to enrich kids' education. You've done some school visits, right? School visits are one of my favorite things to do. I just love hanging out with kids and talking to them about writing and about
00:20:53
Speaker
reading and things that they like. I love to go into school. My favorite question to ask is what are you reading? What books are you like? What are your favorites? And sometimes I get surprised I went to a middle school visit not too long ago and I asked what you know what their favorite books were and I got you know normal
00:21:09
Speaker
stuff and then one girl raises her hands she goes good omens which is a Neil Gaiman and uh Terry Pratchett book that got turned into a series and uh I was like one of my favorites and she was just dumbfounded that I like had read it and knew what it was and and whatnot and so those are some of my favorite conversations to have but um yeah school visits are fun um sometimes they want me to come in and talk about just being an author and what that's like other times they ask me to come in and do some kind of you know
00:21:37
Speaker
writing workshop. I teach and tutor, like I do some writing workshops and I tutor kids in writing. So that's kind of right up my alley. I used to teach at a local private homeschool co-op thing. And I love hanging out with kids and getting to teach them stuff. And so one of my favorite things to do is I go in and I take like a mystery, like I have them solve a mystery. It's kind of like a how to host a murder kind of thing, only generally not a murderer since that's not really
00:22:06
Speaker
looked well upon in schools. But, you know, I give them a box. It's got all the clues in it. They have to work as a group to figure out what the answer is. And that's a huge, like, that's a lot of fun. Well, I love that you are raising up the next generation of mystery lovers and perhaps even mystery writers.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of the goal, right? We talk a lot nowadays about how kids don't like to read and they just want to sit on their iPads. And I just don't think that's necessarily true. I volunteer once a week with a local literacy organization and we go into school and we sit down into underprivileged schools and sit down and read with those kids just for 30 minutes because it's super important.
00:22:54
Speaker
that they get that time. And I see kids excited about reading. I see them thrilled to sit down and read the book that they're reading. They bring whatever book they want to read to you. And they're excited to share that with you. And so I just don't think it's true that kids today don't want to read. I just think we have to remind them that it's fun and that it's an option.
Where to Find Lori's Books
00:23:19
Speaker
So Lori, where can readers find you in your books?
00:23:23
Speaker
Um, so they're available at, you know, pretty much every retailer like Amazon, Barnes and Noble. Um, or you can go to my website, which is LD fairchild, author.com. And, um, I also have social media, uh, Facebook and Instagram. We'll make sure that we put all of those links into the show notes.
00:23:46
Speaker
Thank you again for joining us today, Lori, and thank you all for listening to Clued in Mystery. I'm Brooke. And I'm Sarah. And we both love mystery. Clued in Mystery is written and produced by Brooke Peterson and Sarah M. Steven. Music is by Shane Ivers.
00:24:02
Speaker
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Podcast Sign-off and Listener Engagement
00:24:17
Speaker
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