Ruby Redfort: Feel the Fear

Feel the Fear is Lauren Child's fourth Ruby Redfort spy story for 9 year olds, and it starts with her heroine sitting on a window ledge seventy-two floors up.

What happens

She isn't in danger. Well, she doesn't think so. She's only out there because her dad's client gave her a glass of plain milk and she needed somewhere to tip it.

Ruby is thirteen, a genius with codes and a secret agent for an outfit called Spectrum. Her last case nearly finished her off and she's still got an arm in a cast. Her parents now want to know where she is every single minute, which is driving her nuts.

The odd thing is what all those near misses have done to her. She's stopped being scared. Of anything. Sounds useful for a spy, doesn't it? Her boss disagrees.

Ruby gets told off for taking risks and is pulled off field work. Grounded, basically. She gets one more test to earn her place back, and nobody will tell her when it's coming.

Meanwhile Twinford is getting ready for a film festival at the Scarlet Pagoda, a famous old theatre that badly needs rescuing. There's a costume party to raise the money. Mrs Digby the housekeeper won't set one toe inside because she's certain the place is haunted.

Somewhere else, two people are arguing about stealing something called the 8 key. One of them was supposed to be dead.

The best bit, as ever, is listening to Ruby talk. She and her minder Hitch (the family think he's the butler) bicker like an old double act, and some of it is set out like a script so you can hear every line. Her new rule 80 is about checking which way a window opens before you stand on the ledge. She learns that one the hard way.

Worth knowing before you hand it over

Ruby does properly dangerous things for fun in this one. She strolls along that ledge, and she watches a boy grab the back of a moving truck on his skateboard and decides she needs to try it. The grown-ups around her are worried and the story takes their side. Still, if your reader likes to copy what they read, have the chat first. There's also a quick catch-up on her last case that mentions a murder and a gun.

What to read next

That catch-up gives away how Catch Your Death turns out, so this isn't one to read out of order. And if your reader is new to Ruby altogether, Look Into My Eyes is where it all starts, back when she had only seventy-nine rules.