Sleuth on Skates

Starred review from September 8, 2014
Beauvais makes an uproarious U.S. debut with the story of 11-year-old Sophie “Sesame” Seade, who lives at Cambridge University, roller skates everywhere, and has been waiting all her life for a mystery to solve. Finally, one arrives in the form of missing university student Jenna Jenkins, a gossip columnist and ballerina. Sesame, with help from her two best friends, tries to find out who’s behind this disappearance, despite interference from her parents (her mother is the head of Christ’s College, her father the chaplain). Sesame has a “taste for sophisticated terminology,” as she puts it, which makes some hilarious moments as it becomes clear that she doesn’t always fully understand what she’s saying (“Papa chéri, fire of my loins, can I go out for a walk?” she asks her father memorably, getting an appropriately horrified reaction). Horne’s spot illustrations brim with energy (full of clips, combs, braids, and flyaway curls, Sesame’s hair has a life of its own) and can be as edgy as the narration. A bitingly funny kickoff to the Sesame Seade series. Ages 7–11. Author’s agent: Kirsty McLachlan, David Godwin Associates. Illustrator’s agency: Advocate Art.

September 15, 2014
An appealing girl detective makes her debut in the first of a mystery series. First-person narrator Sesame, as she calls herself, aspires to be a supersleuth and has intelligence, a pair of purple skates, and a resourceful, if not wholly sanctioned, independence at her disposal. At 11 1/2, the bright, only child of accomplished parents (Mum, the head of Christ's College at Cambridge University and Dad, the college's chaplain), Sesame is amusingly exasperated with their attentiveness, and she's got a preteen's talent for smart comebacks. "Jesus Christ, Sophie Margaret Catriona!" her mother gasps in frustration with her at one point. "Is that his full name?" responds Sesame. When an undergraduate goes missing, Sesame pounces eagerly on the mystery, solving it via determination and coincidence with the help of a couple of school friends and a university student or two. It's soon revealed that no harm has come to the girl, but dirty dealings are at work, specifically having to do with the way the university's computer network has been compromised by an aggressive corporate marketing firm. The slightly breathless plot ties up neatly, with bits of university life woven in (a performance of Swan Lake, a nighttime paddle up the river Cam, meetings with various porters and professors-even Stephen Hawking in an unnamed cameo). A likable and diverting British import. (Mystery. 9-12)

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October 1, 2014

Gr 3-5-Precocious 11-year-old Sesame Seade, Cambridge's amateur sleuth-in-residence, is confident that she, using her skates and observation skills, can solve the mystery surrounding a student ballerina's disappearance. Her parents, a professor and a chaplain, exasperated by their daughter's sneaky antics, annoy her with obscure references ("the problem with Sesame is that she's a self-involved little Narcissus"), while other literary allusions are more kid-friendly (Harry Potter). The Seades write off Sesame's sleuthing as eccentricity, leaving her to her own devices with the occasional punishment, including the "gift" of a horridly unsophisticated "Phone4Kidz." Beauvais brings Cambridge alive, while maintaining a quick-paced, laugh-out-loud comedy, and a thought-provoking mystery that explores technology and its use. For graduates of early readers such as Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's Nate the Great, this first installment offers an engrossing whodunit, with charmingly funny prose and illustrations-reminiscent of Lauren Child's Clarice Bean series (Candlewick)-and is an excellent transition to Lemony Snicket.-Hannah Farmer, Austin Public Library, TX

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