Jacqueline Harvey’s Alice-Miranda in China is a travelling mystery for 9 year olds, with a school exchange, an acrobat family and a very secretive grandfather.<\/p>\n
It doesn’t open at school at all. In Beijing, old Lionel Wong tells his two sons he’s made a deal for the family troupe and nobody else is to hear of it. Somebody in the hallway hears every word.<\/p>\n
Back at Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale, the girls and a few Fayle boys are packing for ten days away. There’s Hong Kong first, then Shanghai, then Beijing, where they’ll go to school and stay with host families.<\/p>\n
Everyone’s going except Caprice, because her mother missed the deadline. She spends the morning under her duvet faking a cold (Mrs Howard sees straight through it). Then a last-minute change puts her right back on the trip, and Millie is NOT pleased.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile we meet Coco, who’s tiny and fearless. She cartwheels along the top of a wall on her way to the bathroom and catches flying breakfast bowls on chopsticks. Her grandmother rides a bicycle standing on the seat!<\/p>\n
Coco’s family are hosting some of the visitors. Her grandfather is also rehearsing a brand new trick, a human tower on top of bicycles and spinning plates, for an important guest he won’t name. Even her uncle thinks it’s too risky.<\/p>\n
It flits between lots of people, from Coco’s crowded family courtyard to a sweaty businessman in Hong Kong who suddenly wants to sell his film studio. So your reader will be gathering clues before the plane has even landed. There’s a theft of something very precious on the way too.<\/p>\n
Jacinta has her own worries. Her legs go to jelly whenever she sees Lucas, and she wants Alice-Miranda’s advice before anyone else’s. Who better? Then she panics and tells him the seat beside her is taken when it isn’t, which is a very relatable kind of cringe.<\/p>\n
Caprice is at her worst about the food. She tells everyone that people in China eat dogs and reels off the most revolting dishes she can think of, mostly to wind Sloane up. The others push back straight away and it’s clearly Caprice being mean, but it might be worth a chat if your reader hasn’t come across that sort of remark before.<\/p>\n
The cast is big by now and there’s plenty of history between them. A new reader will keep up, though it all starts with Alice-Miranda at School.<\/p>\n
If they’re after another trip abroad with the same friends, Alice-Miranda in Japan has Mrs Oliver invited to speak in Tokyo and a runaway girl hiding somewhere in the city.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jacqueline Harvey’s Alice-Miranda in China is a travelling mystery for 9 year olds, with a school exchange, an acrobat family and a very secretive grandfather. It doesn’t open at school at all. In Beijing, old Lionel Wong tells his two sons he’s made a deal for the family troupe and nobody else is to hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14749,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"lr_next_read_post_id":13903,"lr_next_read_anchor":"Alice-Miranda in Japan","lr_seo_hook":"An exchange trip to Beijing, a fearless young acrobat and a secret deal.","lr_series_id":247,"lr_series_name":"Alice-Miranda","lr_series_position":14,"lr_series_label":"","lr_author_order":"417"},"book_tag":[22],"age_group":[24],"book_type":[1044],"book_author":[417],"class_list":["post-14750","our-books","type-our-books","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","book_tag-mystery-books","age_group-books-for-9-year-olds","book_type-paid","book_author-jacqueline-harvey"],"yoast_title":"Alice-Miranda in China by Jacqueline Harvey | Little Reads","yoast_metadesc":"An exchange trip to Beijing, a fearless young acrobat and a secret deal. For ages 9+. 3,000+ books in the Little Reads app. 7-day free trial.","acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n