The Red Blazer Girls: The Secret Cellar

Zusatztext The Huffington Post ! September 4! 2013: "With wit! cunning! snappy dialogue and superior math skills! The Red Blazer Girls represent the best of girl-detectives while still feeling relatable and real. Nancy Drew would be right at home with this group." Informationen zum Autor MICHAEL D. BEIL teaches English at an all-girls Catholic high school in New York City. The Secret Cellar is the fourth installment in his Edgar Award-nominated mystery series, The Red Blazer Girls. He is also the author of Summer at Forsaken Lake, to be published by Knopf in summer 2012. Klappentext The perfect series for kids who loved THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more mysteries! "With wit! cunning! snappy dialogue and superior math skills! The Red Blazer Girls represent the best of girl-detectives while still feeling relatable and real. Nancy Drew would be right at home with this group." -- Huffington Post 's 15 Greatest Kid Detectives List Mysteries seem to find the Red Blazer Girls: when Sophie finds a secret message in the antique fountain pen she bought for her father! the girls are on a case. Soon! they're at the home of the pen's original owner! a secretive man who kept to himself. His house is full of puzzles! all of which protect a hidden treasure! and the Blazers will do anything to get to the bottom of things. Throw in an ill-tempered bookstore owner with a motive! a missing will! a walking stick that doubles as a key! a school Christmas play! and a rat named Humphrey! and it all adds up to another thrilling adventure for the Red Blazer Girls. Michael Beil! a New York City high school English teacher and life-long mystery fan! delivers a middle-grade caper that's perfect for middle-grade readers who have finished THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more advanced mysteries! Zusammenfassung The perfect series for kids who loved THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more mysteries! "With wit! cunning! snappy dialogue and superior math skills! The Red Blazer Girls represent the best of girl-detectives while still feeling relatable and real. Nancy Drew would be right at home with this group." -- Huffington Post 's 15 Greatest Kid Detectives List Mysteries seem to find the Red Blazer Girls: when Sophie finds a secret message in the antique fountain pen she bought for her father! the girls are on a case. Soon! they're at the home of the pen's original owner! a secretive man who kept to himself. His house is full of puzzles! all of which protect a hidden treasure! and the Blazers will do anything to get to the bottom of things. Throw in an ill-tempered bookstore owner with a motive! a missing will! a walking stick that doubles as a key! a school Christmas play! and a rat named Humphrey! and it all adds up to another thrilling adventure for the Red Blazer Girls. Michael Beil! a New York City high school English teacher and life-long mystery fan! delivers a middle-grade caper that's perfect for middle-grade readers who have finished THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more advanced mysteries! ...

The Huffington Post, September 4, 2013:
"With wit, cunning, snappy dialogue and superior math skills, The Red Blazer Girls represent the best of girl-detectives while still feeling relatable and real. Nancy Drew would be right at home with this group."

Auteur

MICHAEL D. BEIL teaches English at an all-girls Catholic high school in New York City. The Secret Cellar is the fourth installment in his Edgar Award-nominated mystery series, The Red Blazer Girls. He is also the author of Summer at Forsaken Lake, to be published by Knopf in summer 2012.

Texte du rabat

The perfect series for kids who loved THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more mysteries!

"With wit, cunning, snappy dialogue and superior math skills, The Red Blazer Girls represent the best of girl-detectives while still feeling relatable and real. Nancy Drew would be right at home with this group." -- Huffington Post's 15 Greatest Kid Detectives List

Mysteries seem to find the Red Blazer Girls: when Sophie finds a secret message in the antique fountain pen she bought for her father, the girls are on a case. Soon, they're at the home of the pen's original owner, a secretive man who kept to himself. His house is full of puzzles, all of which protect a hidden treasure, and the Blazers will do anything to get to the bottom of things. Throw in an ill-tempered bookstore owner with a motive, a missing will, a walking stick that doubles as a key, a school Christmas play, and a rat named Humphrey, and it all adds up to another thrilling adventure for the Red Blazer Girls.

Michael Beil, a New York City high school English teacher and life-long mystery fan, delivers a middle-grade caper that's perfect for middle-grade readers who have finished THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more advanced mysteries!

Échantillon de lecture
One does not argue with Fate, the Red Blazer Girls Code, or Andrew Jackson

I'm peeking through an opening in the threadbare velvet curtain that leads into the tiny storefront parlor of Madame Zurandot, who, according to the flashing neon sign in the window, is both PSYCHIC! and CLAIRVOYANT! Two of my fellow wearers-of-the-red-blazer, Rebecca Chen and Leigh Ann Jaimes, look over my shoulders and nudge me inside.

"I can't believe we're doing this. Maybe it's not such a good--" I say as four hands give me a final push. A combination of smells, none of them particularly pleasant, greets me: vanilla incense, mothballs, and, somewhere in the distance, slow-cooking cabbage. Before me is a small round table that looks exactly as I had imagined it would. Seriously, Madame Zurandot has a crystal ball.

"Can I help you?" a voice asks from behind another curtain.

Gulp.

Ten minutes earlier, the three of us had been enjoying a chilly December Saturday in Manhattan, doing a little Christmas shopping and dreaming of the long school vacation, just two weeks away. On most Saturdays, Leigh Ann (the beautiful, graceful one) had dance class, and Becca (talented, artistic) had art lessons, but they were both on break until January. Only Margaret Wrobel (genius, absolute best friend in the world) had plans; besides being the smartest person I know, she's also a future violin superstar and takes lessons from my mom every Saturday, rain or shine, vacation or no vacation.

I spotted it first, a microsecond before Rebecca but enough to beat her to it. Lying there on the sidewalk in front of Madame Zurandot's, folded neatly in fourths, was a twenty-dollar bill!

"Well, hello, Mr. Jackson," I said, unfolding it and holding it up to make sure it was the genuine article.

"Sophie St. Pierre, you are the luckiest person I know," said Leigh Ann. "I don't think I've ever found a quarter."

"What should we do with it?" I asked. "I mean, it's found money. We have to spend it."

"You could buy lunch," Rebecca suggested. "I'm getting hungry."

Leigh Ann shook her head. "No, you should spend it on something for yourself. Or for Raf."

Raf--as in Rafael Arocho--is my boyfriend-who-I'm-not-allowed-to-call-a-boyfriend-until-I'm-sixteen.

"No, no, no," protested Rebecca. "Absolutely not. The rules in this situation are clear: if you find money when you're with other Red Blazer Girls, the money must be shared."

"What rules?" Leigh Ann asked. "You're making that up."

"Actually, she's right," I admitted. "And it's even my rule. Last summer, before you started hanging out with us, I found a five in the park one day--"

"What! You found a five, and now a twenty! That is so not fair," said Leigh Ann.

I shrugged. "I can't help it. It just . . . happens. But I told Margaret and Becca that it was only right to share. The Red Blazer Girls Code, I guess."

"I have an idea," said Becca, pointing at the sign in Madame Zurandot's window. "Firs…