Wednesday, December 19, 2012

What I have been reading...

My favourite find in 2011/2012 would have to be the Flavia du Luce series written by Alan Bradley. An 11 year old sluce solves mysteries in a tumble-down mansion in a by-gone era. The sophisticated language and humour begs to be read aloud to whoever is in ear-shot (it is so funny you just want to share it). This series has surprisingly been marketed to adult readers. Marketing people forget there are thousands of girl readers with advanced reading ages who don't want to read about teenage angst, first sexual experiences, or language loaded with swear words. Lovers of this series (high reading age teen girls), would also like ... the Ruby Redfort series.

Recently, I read the latest Ruby Redfort 'Take your last breath' book by Lauren Child.  Lauren Child actually had Ruby Redfort as a fictional story book protagonist in one of her other books, and like all imaginative authors decided to explore that character in her own series.  The character Ruby Redfort is 13 years old; an only child of very rich parents.  In the first book she becomes a secret agent for Spectrum and prevents a heist. In this book she tries to solve a riddle from one of her ancestors - what happened to the family rubies that were captured by pirates and what is the cause of strange happenings in their harbour; seagulls flocking inland, ships going to wrong ports, fish disappearing, strange noises being reported and a Spectrum agent body washing up on the beach.

Readers will find a delicious mix of wit, secret codes, Ruby's rules on life,  truly terrible baddies that you love to hate and fear, and a strong female character.  Some adult readers might say that it is a totally unbelievable story and a 13 year old could not possibly solve such a crime and why is she left to her own devices all the time ... But get real adult readers - the story is written for10-14 year olds and it is FICTIONAL; and in made-up stories anything can happen...

See more about Ruby Redfort on her own website: http://rubyredfort.com/