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The Mystery Of Meerkat Hill: A Precious Ramotswe Mystery For Young Readers (2012)

by Alexander McCall Smith(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 1

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Anchor

series

Precious Ramotswe's Very First Cases

review 1: Charming and bordering on cutesy, which seems to be McCall Smith's calling card. He's one of those authors that has such a distinct writing style (Neil Gaiman is another one that comes to mind) that I think I'd be able to identify it just by reading any random passage.**Fun side story! When we were at the Pitchfork festival this summer waiting for some band to start playing, Arthur and I were both eyeing the book that some dude was reading. Because we're nerds, we were both trying to guess what it was (we couldn't see the cover or any other identifying information). I had no idea what it was -- it wasn't a horror novel or a children's book, so it was outside my realm of expertise. But, based on the weird punctuation (or lack thereof), Arthur guessed that it was Cormac... more McCarthy -- and he was right!! I was pretty impressed. But then we got into a semi-argument about whether the guy brought the book to legitimately read, or if he was just trying to show off. I'm pretty positive he was trying to show off. I have a lot of experience with reading (or trying to read) at Pitchfork, and here's the environment: loud, claustrophobic, dirty, and floating in a perpetual cloud of pot smoke. In other words, it's not the kind of place where you dig into high-minded literature. But Arthur thought that he was legitimately reading the book (he's wrong). Then we talked about which books would obviously be showing off -- anything by James Joyce was the main one we came up with. I decided that if I saw anyone reading Finnegan's Wake, I would slap the book out of their hands, and possibly punch them. Because it's ridiculously pretentious!Back to the book at hand. It was cute (as I mentioned), but I was kind of mad that it was billed as a "mystery." Because the mystery is really flimsy: some stupid cow is missing, so the kids follow its tracks to find it (wow, that's some earth-shattering detective work there). They discover that it joined a herd of cattle, but the herd owners don't want to hand it over. They agree to relinquish it if the kids can prove that the cow belongs to them. Their "proof" is having a pet meerkat identify the missing cow by sitting on it. These cattle owners must be a couple of dummies, because they accept that as legitimate proof. Um, hello -- the meerkat could totally be sitting on some random cow. It's not like they're known for their uncanny ability to identify specific bovine entities. And then -- yay! -- everything is great so let's go eat doughnuts (or "fat cakes," as they're aptly called in Botswana).I was considering booktalking this one to some Girl Scouts, but the "mystery" is so flimsy that I can't give it a hearty endorsement.
review 2: Alexander McCall Smith writes his second book for young people starring the famous detective Precious Ramotswe. Here Precious is a young girl helping to solve the mystery of a missing cow for her friends. Precious proves again to be smart and kind, using an unusual ally, a meerkat, to save the day.McCall Smith writes wonderfully for children, in a fatherly tone that is gentle but assumes the intelligence of the young reader. In this book, children are introduced to the people, geography, and animals of Botswana. The qualities of kindness and humility are exemplified in young Precious. A good read for children that will teach them as well as entertain them. less

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