July 2012, Bloomsbury
102 pages, Paperback
Review copy
Themes: activity holiday, teamwork, facing
fears, bullying, getting into mischief, historical mystery, sneaking about,
seance almost held, detective work, canoeing, key life stage, dealing with a
hyperactive girl, several plot twists, lots of humour, a little spookiness
Summary from Bloomsbury
Paige Owens, bright, cheeky, confident, cannot wait to go to
secondary school. Curtis Okafor, wary and much less confident, is not so
sure. The only thing they share in common is the first letter of their
surnames - which ensures they are forced into each other's company on a
school trip to Wickworth Manor, the local stately home.
Then
Curtis finds a portrait in his bedroom of a young black servant dressed
in livery. But why is the portrait hidden in the bedroom, and not in
pride of place alongside the other portraits in the manor? And then
Paige finds an intriguing letter, written over 200 years ago by Miss
Verity Burton, who used to live at the Manor, that mentions the
portrait. There is a mystery begging to be unravelled! So Paige and
Curtis, in their very different ways, start work to find out what
happened all those years ago . .
Nayuleska's thoughts
One of the things I like most about this
story is that it isn't too scary. When Paige got out her Tarot cards I was a
little uneasy that it might be too scary. I nearly stopped reading when she
talked about a seance, as it's one thing I hate. However it never happened, and
Paige's strong enthusiasm dispersed the spooky parts.
It was hard to feel
scared when I found the real reason for Curtis's melancholy, which was totally
not what I expected. Although he had major reservations about the holiday, it
ends up being the best thing for him. There wasn't anything specific that made
this a 9/10 read, it's just very hard to love a book totally when I'm ill (and
grumpy!).
You can find out more on Elen's website.
Suggested read
For another adventure trail try The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin
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