| Title | : | Sleuth on Skates (Sesame Seade Mysteries, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0823431975 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780823431977 |
| Language | : | French |
| Format Type | : | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages | : | 214 |
| Publication | : | First published May 2, 2013 |
Sleuth on Skates (Sesame Seade Mysteries, #1) Reviews
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Sleuth on Skates was given to me by my friend
Cait (while we were waiting at the theatre for Matilda to begin, appropriately) as she knew that I wanted to read more middle grade books. I adored the cover - I love mystery and stuff that is cute and also what's the deal with the ducks? – so I couldn't wait to start a fun, surprising adventure with young Sesame Seade.
Sleuth on Skates is a smart, funny new contemporary mystery series accompanied by witty illustrations, beautifully drawn by Sarah Horne, and a brilliantly loquacious heroine. Sleuth on Skates is perfect for those who want to check out more middle grade stories as it's packed full of little references that older readers (okay, you caught me, I'm referring to adults) will enjoy as well as children. As a Marketing Executive, I found myself revelling in the scene where Sesame's mother explains just exactly what marketing is...
Sesame Seade is a super sleuth on skates – a stealthy detective on wheels – and she has been waiting eleven years, five months and seventeen days for a mysterious mission – and now she finally has one. Sesame – also known as Sophie, for her parents inexplicably refuse to call her by her real name – finds university students either boring or disgusting, but unfortunately one of them at Christ's College, Cambridge University, has disappeared. Jenna Jenkins has been missing for two days and although Sesame wonders for a second as to whether Jenna just went home for the weekend and her parents decided to sell her as a slave, as soon as she discovers that she was supposed to play the lead role in Swan Lake and was Editor-in-Cheif of UniGossip magazine, Sesame accepts that not everything is as it seems in the usually disappointingly boring and mystery-free town of Cambridge.
Sleuth on Skates is an ingeniously complex and inventive children's novel – with excellent foreshadowing! – and with a brilliant young protagonist at the forefront. If you think it looks simple and sweet, be warned, as Sesame Seade is sure to have made child Sherlock look like an amateur. If I had to be an 11-year-old again, I'd want to be as cool, as fearless and as intelligent as Sesame. It's not often that I find books funny, I'll be honest, but every page of Sleuth on Skates had me smiling, from Sesame's hilarious one-liners to the frequent appearance of a certain pregnant duck. (I'd love for one to follow me around as I courageously extract key information from exclusive sources, with two best friends, Toby and Gemma, at my side!). It also made me smile because the fact that such an example of excellent children's literature exists makes me rather happy. Clémentine Beauvais is an exceptional storyteller who understands children just as much as she understands adults, conjuring up a perfect story that almost everyone will enjoy. I mean it – I'm sharing it with everybody!
Unfortunately, I cannot write nearly as well as the wonderful Sesame Seade speaks, so I'll leave you with some of her best moments:
'I try not to get too attached to [students] because, like rabbits, they only last three or four years and then they're gone'.
'If there are as many connections in your brain as there are stars in the universe, why ask for superpowers?'
'Normally, I would have followed Jesus's advice since my dad works for his dad, but...'.
I now cannot wait to pick up the second in the series,
Gargoyles Gone AWOL!
I also reviewed this book over on
Pretty Books. -
What a fun book this was! Sesame is such a delightful character. I enjoyed every minute I spent reading about her adventures skating around Cambridge. I was thrilled to see there is already a second book for me to look forward to! I can't wait to see what's next for this sassy sleuth!
Thank you Stacey @ Pretty Books for the recommendation! -
I discovered this series while shelving books at the local library. Of all the Cambridge mystery books I've been reading, this one is hands (and skates!) down the very best. It's a fun romp through Cambridge and Grantchester, so it does help if you've been here. But everyone should enjoy Sesame and her way with words. Brilliant!
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Just what the title of the book says. Yes i do agree on the Rollerskates, very mobile indeed. Just what a "Sluth" needs
today, Mobility.
A Very well done as this fiction book is. Thanks to Clementine Beauvais for writing it. I'll be reading in again sometime in the near future. -
A very cute book. It gave me a lot of laughs
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3.75 stars. I loved her YA book - Piglettes. This has the same interesting parent/child relationship. Fun read, just didn't grab me as much.
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Un petit jeunesse, drôle et sympa. Malgré qu'il soit "destiné aux enfants", la plume de Clémentine Beauvais est très bien travaillé et le suspens de l'enquête est présent.
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CRAPPY EBOOK PROGRAMMING SPOILING BOOK
The quality on this eBook is bad, the drawings are so tiny I can't read the text in them, and part of the story is there.... :( -
"How was it?" asked Gemma as I squeezed my feet into my roller skates for the third time that day.
Precocious Sophie Margaret Catriona Seade (pronounced "seed") insists on being called Sesame and is one unabashed, sassy, impudent 11-year-old. And she's hilarious. Her mom is the Head of Christ's College at Cambridge University and her dad is the college Chaplain. She's completely confident running amok on campus, talking back outrageously, and generally being as disobedient and independent as possible.
"Catastrophic. I bumped into my mum."
Gemma shuddered from head to toe. She's scared of my mum. I used to be scared of my mum too, until I started scaring her back.
She's also quite smart, so when something suspicious occurs with one of the students, she takes it upon herself to investigate. Between Sesame's brains and brazenness, she makes a surprisingly effective detective, "interfering" parents and all. Though something serious really is amiss, Sesame's style is so breezy and funny it's easy to forget the weight of the crime and simply get caught up in the entertainment. This book is gleefully fun."Maman cherie, light of my life, can I go out for a walk?"
"No."
"Papa cheri, fire of my loins, can I go out for a walk?"
"For Heaven's sake, Sophie, where did you get that terrifying expression from? And no, you may not go out for a walk. It's nine o'clock. You should be in bed."
Sophying me around is the best way of getting me to disobey. I was outside in no time at all. My bedroom window is just above a little terrace where the big tree leans on its elbow. I slid down the trunk and landed on a bunch of tulips.
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"The problem with Sophie is that she's a self-obsessed little Narcissus."
"Mummy, my tie has absolutely got to be tied in the right way, or else I might catch Mr. Halitosis's virus when he tells me off."
"Mr. What?"
"Mr. Halitosis. You know, my teacher?"
"Mr. Barnes, you mean?"
"Mother, you are five centuries late. That used to be his name, as in, on the very first day of school, before we noticed what was wrong with him. We called him Mr. Deathbreath for a while, but then Gemma's mum told her bad breath was actually a medical condition called halitosis. So to be more respectful and accurate, we now call him Mr. Halitosis."
"You've been in front of that mirror for eighteen minutes."
"And it's worked wonders. The tie is perfectly tied. You may call for my carriage." -
Also posted at
http://snugglingonthesofa.com/book-re...
Sleuth on Skates is the first in the Sesame Seade Mysteries, where we meet Sophie, who fancies herself as a bit of a detective. Equipped with her roller skates and the wonderful town of Cambridge to explore, she falls into all sorts of amusing situations. When one of the students at Cambridge disappears, Sophie takes it upon herself to discover what happened to her. Between suspicious professors and potential enemies of the missing girl, as well as dodging her parents and the appearance of a pregnant duck, Sophie has her hands full.
Sophie is just a great character. She is so witty, and the conversations with her parents had me in giggles. She is so matter-of-fact in the way that confident children are, and just her enthusiasm and nosy nature made me fall in love with her. Oh how I wish I was solving mysteries as a child! Clementine Beauvais is an amazing storyteller, and has managed to weave a fun but exciting mystery that results in a book that you just can't put down. It is full of fabulous one-liners that will ensure this is a book you will want to reread over and over.
One thing I love most about this book is the illustrations. They are so adorable, and really helped me to picture the situation and the characters. I think they are perfect for kids as well, as a lot of them are funny. The illustrator, Sarah Horne, is actually selling a few prints from the book, and I am seriously thinking about getting one. Or two. Or three...
Overall Sleuth on Skates was a book I really fell in love with. It had me smiling throughout at Sophie's escapades, and I can't wait to find out more about her adventures in the next book! 4.5 sofas. -
I absolutely adored Sesame Seade, the heroine of this MG mystery, who is 11 years old, wildly precocious, self-absorbed, brilliant, and out of control. Her voice - in her narration and in her hilarious lines of dialogue - is absolutely fabulous. I loved the Cambridge University setting, too. The whole book was just enormously fun.
The only reason it's 4 stars instead of 5 stars, for me, is that I personally prefer the kind of mysteries where the stakes are personal and the detective protagonist is changed by the course of the mystery. In this one, Sesame investigates just for fun and ends the book pretty much exactly as she began - i.e., fabulous, self-confident, and with almost nothing having changed in her life. Of course, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that - Hércule Poirot and Miss Marple never change or experience personal growth in the course of any of their mysteries! there's a long tradition of mysteries where the detective is detached from the mystery and doesn't have a major character arc - it's just not *my* personally preferred type of mystery, as a reader. But I still enjoyed every page of this book, I *LOVED* Sesame, and I'd love to read the later books in the series. -
In a humorous new series from abroad, eleven-year-old Sesame Seade--love the name!--whose actual name is Sophie Margaret Catriona Seade--is determined to solve any mysteries that come her way. When a university student disappears mysteriously and certain coincidences start popping up, Sesame is on the case. With help from her two friends, Toby and Gemma, Sesame figures out where the student has disappeared, why, and connects all the dots behind the mystery. The authorial voice in this book is strong and memorable, and I came to love Sesame and worry about her as she set off along the streets of Cambridge, England. Often, it seemed as though her parents, one the Head of Christ's College and the other a chaplain, were too busy to pay her much mind or to take her seriously. I enjoyed the little asides about the pregnant duck and her cat Peter Mortimer and her relationship with Jeremy Hopkins too. Middle grade and younger readers will smile at the references to her teacher and his breath as well as the museum trip that ends unexpectedly. I will certainly look for more from this author since she's created such a likeable character in Sesame.
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This British import features Sesame Seade (actually named Sophie Margaret Catriona Seade) who has to put up with living in Cambridge, England at Christ's College. Her self-absorbed parents are the College Head and the College Chaplain. These two staid individuals are not at all ready for their imaginative, loopy daughter who, on her skates, has decided to be a detective. This is, of course, when she's not worried about a pregnant duck, dealing with her whacky cat, or misinterpreting their absolute rules to best fit her own plans. When a student disappears Sesame is sure someone is up to no good. Indeed, something is going on, but those who know about it are being suborned. Can an 11-year-old girl on roller-skates save the day? This very British, madcap adventure is filled with improbable humorous elements, black and white illustrations, and an offbeat sense of humor. Will it translate to an American audience? That remains to be seen.
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Books that are described as 'funny' are often simply light or whimsical. This book is actually, genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. The deadpan descriptions and witty one-liners had me guffawing on the 12.30 Bristol to Paddington in a way that probably disturbed my fellow passengers. But I didn't care.
Seasame herself is a joy, and her relationships with friends and family are vividly drawn.
I did guess the ending, but that didn't spoil my enjoyment in any way. Young readers looking for a sassy book to fill a hole left by the Famous Five will love Sesame Seade, I'm sure. -
This was one of those books I picked up planning to read a chapter of, and ended up just reading straight through the whole thing. It was hugely entertaining and very witty, just a pleasure from start to finish. I'm planning to take this into school to read to my class of 7-9 year olds as I know they would love it, and it's got plenty of great vocabulary to stretch their learning. Definitely recommended for children or those of us who still love children's books!
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A kids book that pulls the rare feat of being cute, extremely intelligent and utterly accessible to anyone. Can't believe Ms. Beauvais wrote this while doing her PhD! It's filled with unironic joy and ironic parodies and critiques of modern academia. Mocks the modern crass commercialization of the university system and touches on themes of Internet privacy, cost benefits, roller skating and dealing with parents. Hilarious and heartfelt.
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Sophie, call her Sesame, Seade can get somewhat bored in Cambridge University because her parents have quite important and busy jobs. So why not solve some mysteries. If you can find one. Like a missing coed. Sassy. Fun. Inventive. Sesame is all attitude and the very British location is a bonus.
Can be called a longer beginning chapter book - has illustrations. First in a series. -
Guest Review: Clara
I really loved this book. There is so much to love. There are lots of funny things that happened and the mystery was one that I could not figure out. Sesame was a character that I enjoyed solving a mystery with and I would love to go on future adventures with her. I would not rate this book only 5 stars it needs to be 8 stars!!! -
Staff Pick
Heather
Sesame Seade is a spunky and intelligent sleuth on skates and her parents have no idea how to handle her. When a girl at the local college goes missing it's up to Sesame and her friends to find her and unravel the mystery.
Notes: Removed from spreadsheet 12/11/19 -
It's wonderful. A really, really well-crafted children's book, filled with great one liners, humour, mystery and a delightful heroine in Sesame. Full review to come!
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This now one of my favorite mystery books. It's really super funny, and it's a really good book. I'd give it more than 5 stars, if possible.
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Recommend. High level of vocabulary. Grades 4+.
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Absolutely hilarious. Briliant read. Children will love it. Grown- ups too.
The kind of book that will make any child passionate about reading -
Who is this weird Ian guy?
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narrator actually made a reference to harry potter to describe the action in the scene.
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Staff Pick
Sesame Seade is a spunky and intelligent sleuth on skates and her parents have no idea how to handle her. When a girl at the local college goes missing it's up to Sesame and her friends to find her and unravel the mystery.
