History, mystery, peril and adventure! Kim Geyer’s gorgeous cover already offers a glimpse of what to expect from Judith Eagle’s latest middle-grade novel The Stolen Songbird. It’s high-stakes storyline and compelling cast of interesting characters are led by fearless heroine Caro (and never Caroline!); a girl who has a soft spot for rabbits, and a blind spot for anyone who tries to tell her what to do.
With her free-spirited mother, a world-travelling professional female whistler (a ‘siffleuse’), and her pub-owning ‘other mother’, Caro is free to roam the streets of London with her fashion-forward pal Horace. But when unexpected events mean Caro has to temporarily live with estranged great-aunt Mary, Caro struggles to adapt to her aunt’s house rules – the worst of which are, no roaming, and absolutely NO rabbits.
It comes as no surprise, then, that when Caro links a recent break-in at great-aunt Mary’s house to the theft of a series of paintings that Caro is soon on the case, breaking all those rules and more, and getting herself and her loyal friends into deeper trouble the closer she gets to unravelling the mystery – especially when she realises her beloved her pub home is involved and in danger.
I love the snippets of history peppered throughout this novel – songs that were hits at the time, Horace’s admiration of emerging talent Yves St Laurent; references that ground this book in 1950s London and appear in the natural flow of conversation, feeding into the characters’ individual interests and personalities.
With red herrings, twists and turns, and truly terrible baddies, this book is a great read for adventure-loving kids who love to see children outwitting bands of villainous grown-ups. And doing it in style!
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