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Sesame Seade Mysteries 1: Sleuth on Skates by Clementine Beauvais and Sarah Horne (view source)
Revision as of 07:55, 22 March 2014
, 07:55, 22 March 2014no edit summary
Eleven-year-old Sesame Seade has been waiting all her life to be a super sleuth, so when a student journalist disappears and no-one seems all that bothered, she decides to solve the case herself. Can she track down the vanished girl before her parents work out what's going on?
I think one of the things books for this age range does perhaps even better than YA is fun books. That's not to say there aren't any really joyous YA novels out there, of course - I'm thinking of ones like [[Boys Don't Knit by T S Easton]], [[Have A a Little Faith by Candy Harper]] and ''Weirdos vs Quimboids'' by Natasha Desborough. But they seem to be relatively rare and hugely underrated, whereas books aimed at 9-12 year olds are maybe a more frequent source. I'm pleased to say that Sesame Seade is absolutely huge FUN with a capital F, U and N! Sesame herself is a brilliantly resourceful heroine who's clever, brave and honest, with a wonderful voice. (Having said that, while I loved reading about her, I'm so, so glad that I didn't have to teach her - I even felt sorry for poor Mr Halitosis!)
Much of the credit for Sesame's fabulousness goes to author Clementine Beauvais, of course, for giving us a great set of characters - I really enjoyed the relationship with her mother, a college professor, and her father, a reverend, both of whom clearly love their daughter but find her rather challenging! - and a clever, original plot. I was intrigued by the solution to the mystery and it was a genuinely surprising one. Oh, there are also some fabulous one-liners - I think my favourite is ''Normally I would have followed Jesus's advice, since my dad works for his dad...'' As if that wasn't enough, it's also got enough throwaway comments referring to classics - as befits a book set at Cambridge university - to pique younger reader's curiosity about Narcissus, Scheherazade and many others, so you can even think of it as educational.