{"id":18140,"date":"2013-02-22T00:13:23","date_gmt":"2013-02-22T04:13:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=18140"},"modified":"2013-02-22T00:13:23","modified_gmt":"2013-02-22T04:13:23","slug":"review-of-the-great-cake-mystery-by-alexander-mccall-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=18140","title":{"rendered":"Review of The Great Cake Mystery, by Alexander McCall Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Great Cake Mystery<\/p>\n

Precious Ramotswe\u2019s Very First Case<\/p>\n

by Alexander McCall Smith
\nillustrations by Iain McIntosh<\/p>\n

Anchor Books (Random House), New York, 2012. First published in Scotland in 2010. 73 pages.
\nStarred Review<\/p>\n

A book for beginning chapter book readers about the No. 1 Ladies\u2019 Detective, Precious Ramotswe, when she was a little girl! Now readers ready for short chapters can enjoy the flavor of Botswana, as adults have been doing for so long.<\/p>\n

Sweet things have been disappearing at Precious\u2019s school, and one boy has been found to have sticky hands. But is that enough evidence against him? Precious doesn\u2019t think so, and she comes up with a clever trick for catching the real thief.<\/p>\n

The story is simple and perhaps a little predictable, but it doesn\u2019t talk down to kids and would be a delight to read aloud to a class or to a family at bedtime.<\/p>\n

The style, matter-of-fact and pleasant, matches that used in the books for adults, and I did feel like I was meeting the same person as a child. And now we have the treat of her interactions with her father, Obed Ramotswe. In fact, he tells Precious a story at the beginning, which is what triggers the thought that she may be a detective one day. And then a piece of cake is missing from her school.<\/p>\n

She might easily have forgotten all about it \u2013 after all, it was only a piece of cake \u2013 but the next day it happened again. This time it was a piece of bread that was stolen \u2013 not an ordinary piece of bread, though: this one was covered in delicious strawberry jam. You can lose a plain piece of bread and not think twice about it, but when you lose one spread thickly with strawberry jam it\u2019s an altogether more serious matter.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This book is a selection for this year\u2019s Summer Reading Program in Fairfax County, Virginia, and I\u2019m delighted that got me to finally read it. This will be a fun one to tell kids about. It\u2019s perfect for that first desire to step into chapter books and will reward readers with an absorbing story.<\/p>\n

I also love that it\u2019s set in modern Botswana as a lovely place where normal kids live and go to school. Some things about Botswana \u2013 like the wildlife \u2013 are spelled out, and the pronunciation of names (like Ramotswe) is given. But it\u2019s clear that kids are kids and are the same everywhere.<\/p>\n

alexandermccallsmith.com<\/a>
\nanchorbooks.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Find this review on Sonderbooks<\/a> at: www.sonderbooks.com\/Childrens_Fiction\/great_cake_mystery.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.<\/p>\n

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but I write the posts for my website and blogs entirely on my own time. The views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n

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