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It all starts with a scream. Sophie St. Pierre is sitting in Mr. Eliot's English class, listening to Leigh Ann James and Margaret Wrobel read from Great Expectations when she sees a ghostly face in one of the upper windows of St. Veronica's Church. Sophie, being Sophie, lets fly with a scream. After class, Sophie tells Margaret and their other good friend, Rebecca Chen, about seeing the face in the window. Margaret, being Margaret, decides they should all investigate.
And that's how the girls meet Elizabeth Harriman, whose home is the old convent connected to the church. From Elizabeth's point of view it's a fortuitous meeting. She's just discovered the first clue to a scavenger hunt her father set up for her daughter 20 years ago. Apparently the love of puzzles and riddles skipped Elizabeth's generation, so she recruits Sophie, Margaret and Rebecca (and later, Leigh Ann) to solve the clues and find the valuable artifact hidden at the end of the trail. What follows is a rollicking good adventure.
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Four 7th graders from St. Veronica's, in Manhattan, find themselves following clues in a 20-year-old treasure hunt/mystery. There is no shortage of humor, action, brain-teasers and adventure, from the clever chapter titles (Chapter 33: Sometimes a little spit is all you need)to the puzzling clues, to the references to Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe. Michael Beil has just the right mix of private school jargon, in-jokes and funny asides. The girls' lives outside of school are refreshingly normal -- they babysit siblings, get crushes on boys, IM each other and study for school. This is the start to a promising series.
BTW: Readers who like The Red Blazer Girls may also enjoy Kirsten Miller's Kiki Strike books--featuring Anaka Fishbein and her teenage friends who also encounter mysteries in NYC.
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While seventh grader Sophie St. Pierre gazes out the window of St. Veronica's Catholic School, she spies an old woman peering through the attic window of the church next door. And the weirder thing is, it appears as if this individual needs some help. Unable to pass up the chance for an adventure, she and her two best friends, Margaret and Rebecca, sneak out of school at lunchtime to investigate.
The ancient church houses lots of old paintings and religious relics, but the girls are more interested in finding a way up to the attic window. They discover a dusty back staircase, which connects to the old convent next door where Ms. Harriman lives, the woman whose face was in the window. And it turns out that she does indeed need their help.
Ms. Harriman recently discovered a birthday card written by her now-deceased father to her daughter 20 years ago. It has been hidden in an old book, lost and unknown. The card invites Ms. Harriman's daughter to decipher the clues to find a rare and valuable treasure. Ms. Harriman admits she isn't the greatest at riddles, plus one of the clues lies hidden in the school's library, so she invites the girls to help her solve the mystery. They gladly accept, diving into the chain of clues and puzzles, challenging their brains and strengthening their friendship in an adventure of a lifetime. Unfortunately, someone else is interested in the treasure as well, and will stop at nothing to claim it.
Michael D. Beil is a high school English teacher, who thankfully decided to expand his accomplishments to include penning this terrific debut novel. He writes with a high energy that infects the reader right from page one, has a real connection to his audience, and rewards their interests with a clever, exciting and hilarious mystery. Readers will have fun attempting the puzzles and riddles along with the likable characters, who are smart, energetic and colorful. Beil skillfully organizes his story so that all the clues fall smoothly into place, and the action and humor hooks the reader and never lets go. He proves that what we learn in school --- math, literature and more --- is fascinating and even relevant to real life.
Thank you so much, Mr. Beil, for bringing us the Red Blazer Girls. Please continue to share your amazing talent with your fans by creating many more mysteries as soon as possible.
--- Reviewed by Chris Shanley-Dillman, author of FINDING MY LIGHT and THE BLACK POND
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This book also captures the attention of boys. In fact, one of my friends told me her son was up until 2 in the morning reading this book - he couldn't put it down. Finally he's going to give his sister a chance (for whom I originally purchased the book.) And he's already asking when the next book will come out! There's no doubt, The Red Blazer Girls grabs you from the first page and is written in such an engaging style that you can't put it down.
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Terrific mystery for girls. The story is a puzzle filled with puzzles--linguistic, mathematical, logical (even the publication information has to be read in a mirror). The Red Blazer girls are middle class kids who attend a Catholic school in the Upper East side of Manhattan--tony surroundings, regular kids. Refreshingly, the story is filled not only with wit, suspense, excitement, and adventure, but with good, caring parents, teachers, priests, and other adult role models. It is cool--and crucial to solving the puzzle--to be smart and work hard in school. Dialogue is crisp and funny, and the girls, though they seem quite advanced for 12-year olds--are a delight.
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