Every great detective story starts with a mystery. This fall at Innovations Academy (IA), a tuition-free K-8 public school in San Diego, our 2026-27 Literacy Campaign, “Read Like a Detective”, begins with clues hiding in bookstores, and our whole community is on the case. We kicked off in September with our first-ever Book Crawl and continue October 12 with our school-wide “One School, One Genre” reading. Can you guess this year’s genre? Mystery, of course!
The Case of the Missing Frog Detectives
Starting the weekend of September 5, families grabbed a Detective Notebook and set out to explore 11 bookstores across San Diego. Hidden on each store’s shelves sat a small detective frog, hand-knit by our second grade teaching assistant, Shenoa. In nine stores, the frog wore a word around his neck. Collect all nine, unscramble them, and the mystery sentence was solved.
Using their little gray cells (Hercule Poirot anyone?), our young detectives gathered store stamps, snapped selfies, and discovered new books to bring home. Each store visited earned a raffle entry, with a bonus for cracking the sentence. Eleven lucky winners will each take home one of Shenoa’’s frog detectives in our upcoming raffle. A big thank-you to our partner bookstores for welcoming our community.
One School, One Genre: Six Weeks of Mystery
Next up, from October 12 through November 20, our whole school reads the same genre together, and every family receives a book matched to their child’s grade:
- K-4: Me, Frida, and the Secret of the Peacock Ring by Angela Cervantes. A girl spending the summer near Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Mexico helps a brother and sister find a missing ring.
- 5-8: The Mystery of Locked Rooms by Lindsay Currie. Three escape-room-loving friends search an abandoned fun house for hidden treasure.
Here’s how it works:
- Kick-off assembly on Monday, October 12 and books go home!
- A family reading calendar maps out a chapter each night, plus there’s a weekly discussion question to spark conversation at home.
- A weekly trivia question, shared by video, gives students a chance to enter a drawing for a prize.
- Teachers weave the book into Monday morning meetings through greetings, shares, and activities.
These are our longest picks yet, so expect a few cliffhanger pleas at bedtime. That’s half the fun!
How IA Builds Readers All Year
Coordinated by our reading specialist, Jen Franklin, Read Like a Detective is the newest chapter in a bigger story here at IA. We believe literate kids don’t happen by accident; readers flourish when families and schools work together.
Throughout the year:
- Jen works with students individually and in small groups, and partners with classroom teachers using research-backed Reading Simplified strategies.
- We encourage 15 minutes of reading at home and 15 minutes at school every day, tracked on a simple calendar.
- Our inquiry-based approach means students read with purpose: asking questions, gathering evidence, and drawing conclusions.
In other words, reading like a detective is simply how we learn at IA. We teach kids how to think, not what to think.
Join the Investigation
Watch for your family’s book after the October 12 assembly, and put your reading calendar somewhere everyone will see it. Then make it a family adventure: read a chapter together, try the weekly discussion question at dinner, and share a photo of your young detective reading on Instagram or Facebook with @InnovationsAcademy.
Not enrolled yet at Innovations Academy but curious about our creative little school that takes literacy seriously? Schedule a tour at innovationsacademy.org or call 858-271-1414. We’re enrolling now for select grades.
About Innovations Academy:
Innovations Academy is a tuition-free public charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in San Diego, California. Our small school values a hands-on, inquiry-based education with high academic standards using self-expression, compassionate connection, and purposeful learning. Our new modern campus is intentionally designed with curiosity and exploration in mind. Join our innovative school today! Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Find us at innovationsacademy.org.