Tuesday, October 07, 2014

The Case of the Stolen Sixpence

The Case of the Stolen Sixpence. Holly Webb. Illustrated by Marion Lindsay. 2014. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 176 pages. [Source: Review copy]

I liked The Case of the Stolen Sixpence. It is a light historical mystery set in Victorian London. It is light on history and light on mystery. But light isn't necessarily a bad thing. This is an often charming book for young readers.

Maisie Hitchins is the protagonist. Perhaps she is supposed to be helping her grandmother run the boardinghouse. Perhaps she is supposed to be focused on helping with chores and running errands and keeping guests happy. But Maisie sees the world differently. She sees herself as a detective, a young detective perhaps, but one with great potential. She wants REAL cases, HARD cases. But the cases that come her way right now come from her own curiosity. For example, she finds a puppy in a wet sack, she wants to know WHO tried to drown the puppy? (And can she keep him PLEASE!!!!) She hears that the delivery boy has lost his job at the butcher's shop, she wants to know WHY did he lose his job? (And can he have it back PLEASE!!!!) Maisy is certainly likable and there are plenty of cute, charming scenes. The mysteries may be "light" cases, but, they matter very much to Maisy.

© 2014 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

2 comments:

Suko said...

This sounds charming to me as well. :)

Suko said...
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