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Alice-Miranda At Sea. Jacqueline Harvey (2013)

by Jacqueline Harvey(Favorite Author)

4.31 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

184941632X (ISBN13: 9781849416320)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Red Fox

series

Alice-Miranda

review 1: Alice-Miranda and her parents have been invtited to a wedding aboard the royal yacht Octavia by Auntie Gee (the queen). Alice-Miranda is glad to have some of her friends along with her, and even Jacinta's spoiled socialite mother, Ambrosia, is on board, although she continues to ignore her daughter. There are mysteries abounding, from the very shy Neville who has stowed away in the cabin across from Ambrosia's, to jewel thefts, quirky Russian chefs, and a doctor who may or may not be what he seems. Alice-Miranda and her friends manage to solve these while having a very polite and extravagant party on board the queen's yacht. Strengths:Alice-Miranda is very polite, her parents are involved, and her social circle is beyond reproach. The mysteries are not scary for younger re... moreaders, and the exotic setting will appeal to readers who have gone beyond Eloise.Weaknesses:This seemed a bit long for the demographic (ages 7-10 but almost 400 pages), and is a bit precious, with multiple characters with long, hypenated names.
review 2: I thought that this story was structured well, especially with the boy, Neville at the start, which caught my attention as being something mysterious. When I read the first few chapters' first lines, there was a word, "limosoine". Later, it was introduced that the main character, Alice-Miranda, was 7 years old. I thought, 'this child must be from a wealthy family!' and she was. She had relations to many famous people. At the start Alice-Miranda is really friendly, introducing herself to every staff member on the boat when they boarded with a handshake and a self-introduction, and because of that, she ends up softening the hearts of people on board the ship with her honest and free heart through other events, such as she did with Dr Lush, Alex and Chef Vladimir, Mr Winterstone and more. It was pretty touching, reading the story of such a young child and seeing her change people's hearts, and more importantly, solving mysteries and gaining new companions. So regarding the story, I thought that it was really quite clever of J.H to give Prendergast a twin brother, and that he was a convicted armed robber that just finished his sentence. It was extremely well thought of, that she got him to cut squares of paper at the start of the story, that most readers would have dismissed, and later referred back to it as the blackmail notes that the victims had received when their precious jewels were gone, all because of that guy.What I really liked about this book was was that the chapters were short and snappy, so things didn't drag out. Although the climax of the story was quite later on in the text, the reader would be surprised that there was so much to do on the ship, and so much to read about Alice-Miranda and her adventures around the ship and with her friends, and how there were so many personalities of the ship's passengers. For an example, Jacinta's mother had an 'uncaring' attitude towards her child, Jacinta. But when, at the end, she learns of her daughter getting kidnapped, and was overtaken by tears and realized how much her daughter meant to her. She was a famous person after all, and was used to telling other people orders, but after the incident, Jacinta would tell her mother orders instead, and she wasn't used to it, though now she's paying more attention to her child. Oh yes, the Queen was on board too. The Queen, also known as Aunty Gee or Queen Georgiana, is actually one funny woman! She's not like other old ladies, but someone in a completely different league. That's why I like her character. More about the writing style/technique now...The author, J.H, actually put a lot of evident things in there that are easy to spot for older readers who read the book. For example, there are similes here and there, but they're not very evident, but still able to know that it's a simile. Another is the repetition of certain words. J.H had repeated a lot of words, such as 'delicious' by Alice-Miranda, who always says it here and there in the funniest ways, such as 'Isn't this party delicious?' which I found quite strange yet interesting. Another would be 'very good' or something along the lines, for butlers and the crew on board. They main character had a very polite behavior toward everyone as well, and knew many words that other kids her age wouldn't have known, and spoke older than she should. But that may be because of her education, maybe? It did mention that she goes to a private girls school... less

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