Carmen Sandiego – Clue by Clue

Catherine Hapka's Clue by Clue is a Carmen Sandiego treasure hunt for 9 year olds, with a pirate's map, a stolen diary and a LOT of leaping across rooftops.

What happens

Carmen is a thief who steals from other thieves. She was trained at VILE, a secret school for criminals, and walked out. Now she spends her time wrecking their plans (in a bright red coat and hat, which isn't exactly subtle).

It opens in London. Carmen is tailing Tigress, a VILE agent with claws on her gloves, into a rich collector's house stuffed with pirate treasure. Tigress ignores the gold coins. She takes one scrap of old paper.

Why would VILE want a map that shows only a beach and a row of odd little symbols? That's the puzzle. Carmen has a crew to help her crack it. Player is the computer whizz in her ear. Zack and Ivy are a brother and sister from Boston who drive too fast and build gadgets out of takeaway cartons.

Then there's Inspector Chase Devineaux. He's sure Carmen is behind everything and keeps popping up at exactly the wrong moment. He's very funny. One of his big arrests ends with him in the Thames!

The trail runs from the Tower of London to Jamaica, with the diary of a fifteen-year-old pirate called Cal Cutlass along the way. You pick up lots of real places as you go. The ravens at the Tower. The old pirate town of Port Royal, now under the sea. Player loves a fact and shares plenty.

There's a good bit of action. Sword fights with museum cutlasses, a cannonball hurled across a room and one nasty moment when Tigress throws an axe at a little dog (Carmen catches it in a pirate hat and the dog is fine). It's cartoon-style rather than scary.

If you've got a reader who likes a heist with jokes in it, and a hero who's always one step ahead, this is lots of fun. It's an original story set in the world of the Netflix cartoon, so fans will know everyone, but you don't need to have watched it.

What to read next

If they want more of Carmen, Player and poor old Chase, try Who in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? It opens with Chase and his brand-new partner Julia in a parked car in Poitiers, certain they're about to catch her.