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Jacqueline Harvey's Alice-Miranda On Holiday is a cosy mystery for 9 year olds about a very small girl, a very big house and a stranger who wants to know its secrets.
Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones is seven and a half. She's just got to the end of her very first term of boarding school (which she decided to start early, of course) and she's bringing her friend Jacinta home for the holidays.
Home is Highton Hall. Fifty-odd rooms, topiary horses on the lawn, a housekeeper who times everyone sliding down the banister and a cake so good it's simply called Heaven Cake.
Jacinta isn't sure about any of it at first. She hates horses (they smell) and she's allergic to fish. But the Hall soon works its magic on her, especially when she nearly beats the banister record on her very first go!
Not everything is rosy, though. A cross, dark-haired boy lobs stones at the girls from an oak tree, pinches a pear meant for someone who's been poorly and shoves Alice-Miranda over. Little Poppy announces that his mummy doesn't want him any more.
Alice-Miranda's answer? He probably just needs some friends.
That's the heart of these books. Alice-Miranda is relentlessly kind and polite, and it's funny watching grown-ups and grumpy children alike melt when she hugs them "just because". She talks a LOT (her mother has to remind her to breathe) and somehow it stays sweet rather than sickly.
The mystery sits quietly in the background early on. A handsome man in a pinstriped suit charms an old lady into going through old plans of the Hall with him, with a smile that isn't nice at all. A young woman is crying after a visitor. A black car with tinted windows tears off down the lane.
Readers will love being one step ahead here, because they saw that smile and Alice-Miranda didn't.
If you've got a reader who loves boarding school stories, grand houses and a bit of detective work, this series is a gem. It's lovely on friendship too, as Jacinta realises her own family has no traditions and is told she's welcome to share Alice-Miranda's.
This one follows straight on from that first term, so if they'd like to see how it all began, start with Alice-Miranda At School, where she turns up a day early and the headmistress doesn't even come out of her study to say hello.
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