The Making of "The Children Of Canoko"

What is "The Children of Canoko" you ask?
It's a book I've been working on for quite some time and have recently scrapped to try again.

What is the story of "The Children of Canoko"?
This book is about young Anna Magdalena Morris & her companions Hope Selvato, Alex Evano Kiran, & James Robert Houghton who are from the make believe town of Canoko. They search to find out what happened to the missing children. How the children disappeared, not really sure. I'm confused whether I should make this a moreso Murder Mystery or fantasyish.

How long have you been working on this book?
I've been working on this is the beginning of summer, but scrapped it since it didn't make much sense. So here I will get help from whoever's reading this of different opinions & prespectives since I don't know much.