1. Think of a mystery, puzzle, or question about your family or your community that could be solved by using original documents, such as letters, diaries, or old newspapers. Determine the best resources for finding the information you need and where those resources might be located, such as your grandparents' attic, the local historical society, the public library, or a special museum. Even if you do not find the answer to your mystery, you will be learning how historians try to reconstruct the past.

2. In some mystery stories the author lets the reader know information the main character does not yet know, so that the reader knows who the "bad guys" are but the potential victim in the book does not. Suspense is built as the character becomes involved in what the reader already knows is a dangerous situation. In The...