≡ Download The Red Blazer Girls The Ring of Rocamadour Michael D Beil 9780375848148 Books

The Red Blazer Girls The Ring of Rocamadour Michael D Beil 9780375848148 Books

Download As PDF : The Red Blazer Girls The Ring of Rocamadour Michael D Beil 9780375848148 Books

The Red Blazer Girls The Ring of Rocamadour Michael D Beil 9780375848148 Books

This book was such a fun read that I read it in one sitting on a flight from New York back to Los Angeles. Sophie, a 7th grader sees something in the window of a church across the way from her school. She and 2 friends sneak away to see what it was. Turns out an older woman, long out of touch with her daughter entices the girls to figure out a clue to a mystery that is over 20 years old. Will the remaining clues still exist? Will the treasure still be there? Find out in this mystery that includes literary references, friendship, first crushes and caring adults. The first in a new series.


Tags : The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour [Michael D. Beil] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>The perfect series for kids who loved THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more mysteries!</b> Edgar Award Nominee for Best Mystery! With wit,Michael D. Beil,The Red Blazer Girls: The Ring of Rocamadour,Knopf Books for Young Readers,0375848142,Social Themes - Friendship,Catholic schools;Juvenile fiction.,Friendship;Juvenile fiction.,Puzzles;Juvenile fiction.,Action & Adventure - General,CHILDREN'S FICTION MYSTERIES & DETECTIVE,Catholic schools,Children's BooksAges 9-12 Fiction,Children: Grades 4-6,Friendship,JUVENILE,Juvenile Fiction,Juvenile Fiction Action & Adventure General,Juvenile Fiction Mysteries & Detective Stories,Juvenile Fiction Social Themes Friendship,Juvenile Grades 4-6 Ages 9-11,Juvenile Mysteries,Mysteries, Espionage, & Detective Stories,Puzzles,Social Issues - Friendship,United States

The Red Blazer Girls The Ring of Rocamadour Michael D Beil 9780375848148 Books Reviews

This is the complete review as it appears <a href="http//ianwoodnovellum.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-red-blazer-girls-by-michael-d-beil.html">at my blog dedicated to reading, writing (no 'rithmatic!), movies, & TV</a>. Blog reviews often contain links which are not reproduced here, nor will updates or modifications to the blog review be replicated here. Graphic and children's reviews on the blog typically feature two or three images from the book's interior, which are not reproduced here.

Note that I don't really do stars. To me a book is either worth reading or it isn't. I can't rate it three-fifths worth reading! The only reason I've relented and started putting stars up there is to credit the good ones, which were being unfairly uncredited. So, all you'll ever see from me is a five-star or a one-star (since no stars isn't a rating, unfortunately).

I rated this book WORTHY!

WARNING! MAY CONTAIN UNHIDDEN SPOILERS! PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

This is a first person PoV narrated middle-grade story about four girls (Sophie St. Pierre, Margaret Wrobel, Rebecca Chen, and Leigh Anne Jaimes) who become engaged in a quest to solve clues and find a treasure at St. Veronica's Catholic school.

I see this novel being promoted as "The Ring of Rocamadour Red Blazer Girls #1" in reviews, but my copy has The Red Blazer Girls on the cover, and that's it. No ring puts in an appearance until chapter eight, although the inside title page does mention the Ring of Rocamadour, but I don't get how reviewers translate that into retitling the entire novel!

One day whilst pursuing a foolish 'ghost' sighting, some of the four girls discover that the ghost is really an old woman who lives in a house attached to the local Catholic church. While visiting with her, the girls discover a birthday card hidden inside a book - a card which a man had intended that his then 12-year-old daughter Caroline would solve, but she's now an adult and living far away, so it falls to the new generation of 12-year-olds to solve it. Not a one of them - neither girls nor adults - thinks of calling or emailing Caroline to get her help solving the clues for some bizarre reason.

On a rather flimsy pretext, the girls end-up in a house attached to the school church, and meet Ms. Harriman. They discover a long-forgotten clue that leads on a treasure hunt. The first clue is pretty sad. It's a simple anagram - a very, very simple anagram that reveals a book title that leads to the next clue. The second clue is a bit more complex.

For supposed Catholic girls, these four sure seem to have a rather salty vocabulary! They don't seem very religious, either, which is fine with me, but the clues are pretty much all imparted through investigations inside a church. Why he put them in a church goes unexplained, especially since the clues are hidden in very difficult to get at places, such as being under a dedication plaque that's screwed to a pew, for example. Recall that the clues were placed a decade ago, and for a girl who was highly educated and very literate, not for the four girls who are now trying to locate and decipher them in the present. It would seem that several of those who negatively reviewed this novel forgot that important distinction.

One major problem with this is that it's written by a mature guy, and he's trying to portray juvenile girls, which is admirable, but which gets him into trouble in places. Some of the references the girls use are mature guy references, not middle-grade girl references, so while this makes it accessible to older readers, it also makes it rather unrealistic as well.

Some of the clues are a bit weird, too. The first one - the title of a book and the name of its author - was so limp and easy as to be pathetic - not remotely worthy of an intelligent and very literate young woman. Others were so obscure that there was no way you would get them unless you were a literal expert on, or dedicated devotee of, Charles Dickens, for example, which his daughter evidently was, but which these girls are really not.

Others were math problems, mostly focused on Cartesian graphing. These were well done, and it's admirable that the girls were depicted not only attacking them, but also relishing the prospect. I liked that very much and it's one of the reasons I'm positively reviewing this novel. It portrays girls as smart, independent, can-do kind of people, no boys required, although there is a lot of interaction between the girls and male figures, mostly authority figures (or a potential bad guy), but also including one of their own age upon whom one of the quartet has a crush.

I think it would have been better had the author kept strongly in mind that these were modern twelve-year-olds (the book was published in 2009), and that they were dealing with a very personalized problem which was set for a highly educated girl a decade or two previously. It seems that he perhaps became a bit muddled as to who he was writing for or to whom he was trying to appeal, and who he was representing in the writing.

That aside I liked the novel, I liked the portrayal of the girls for the most part, and the puzzles were not too awfully bad. I think it will appeal to middle-graders - probably mostly female, but ones who are not afraid to admit to an intellect and to a love of adventure and mystery.
I love the mystery, and the many places where there author has the girls figuring out puzzles based on literature and math. However, I'm uncomfortable with the girls talking about cute boys and having crushes, and then in the next book, one of the girls has her first kiss and there is some comment about her being almost 13, with the implication that she is rather old to be having her first kiss. For myself, I've had to mentally pretend that this girls are closer to 15 or 16 and then allow myself to enjoy the story. For my daughter who is 11 and almost 12, I know that cute boys and first kisses are not anywhere on her radar. This book gives the impression that children start to date at 12 unless they have unreasonably strict parents. I'm enjoying this book myself, but I will not be passing it on to my daughter until she's quite a bit older.
I think this book isnt really the best book by the red blazer girls and I don't like it!!
Thanks
It was fantastic. I am totally like Margaret. She can be such a geek. Oh and the ending is great.
I was looking for a book for a school wide read aloud. Being a math teacher, I thought it would be great to find some math in our reading. This was exactly what I was looking for.
This book is a mystery with a love twist. The clues are amazing and Margaret is really smart. You think Malcom is the one who is going to steal th ring but it is not.
Fantastic book series.
This book was such a fun read that I read it in one sitting on a flight from New York back to Los Angeles. Sophie, a 7th grader sees something in the window of a church across the way from her school. She and 2 friends sneak away to see what it was. Turns out an older woman, long out of touch with her daughter entices the girls to figure out a clue to a mystery that is over 20 years old. Will the remaining clues still exist? Will the treasure still be there? Find out in this mystery that includes literary references, friendship, first crushes and caring adults. The first in a new series.