Kate Davies (4) (1962–)

Two years after denying the existence of her family and succeeding at a posh girls' boarding school, the jig is up for Imogen Crim when her headmistress learns that Imogen's family has been arrested for the heist of a valuable piece of property. Summarily kicked out of school until she can get her family to repent, Imogen returns home to discover that her family didn't even commit the crime of which they are accused. Can Imogen prove their innocence while taking care of her uncontrollable show more cousins and return to school in time to run as head girl?

This book just was not my cup of tea. For starters, I just can't conceive of recommending a book to a child that begins with the main character being a more or less model citizen and ends with her embracing a life of crime. Furthermore, the consequences for crime seem minimal, which is so far removed from reality that I again struggle to recommend this title to young readers. While I don't think children need to be exposed to all the harsh realities of prison life, I also don't think they should be given a view of prison where the entire family is allowed to be kept together, visitors can stop in whenever, knitting needles are acceptable for a prisoner to have, etc. You could make the argument that little of this book resembles reality and hope that kids will make the distinction, but personally I would hesitate to recommend it unless I knew the child was mature enough.

The writing style is okay. The beginning is a bit slow but eventually the book starts to pick up. There were some amusing puns and wordplay, but I think much of the humor would be over the intended audience's heads. For instance, how many kids are really going to get and enjoy a John Travolta reference? The characterizations beyond Imogen and Freddie are very one-note, which is disappointing for someone like me who loves character development. On the other hand, those who read more for adventurous plots might enjoy this title more than I did. Several of the twists were predictable (although perhaps younger readers might be more surprised), most especially the big reveal that Big Nana was still alive, which was spoiled by the book's own cover illustration! While the main mystery of this book is wrapped up, there is still plenty left up in the air, clearly keeping the reader in suspense for the follow-up book. As you may suspect by my less-than-glowing review, I have no interest in picking up the sequel.

Oddly enough, on paper it seems like this book would be good for fans of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events books, but I LOVED those and didn't really care for this. Perhaps others will disagree... show less

I meet a couple of friends once a week for coffee/chai/chocolate and today one of them said "want to go to the bookstore afterwards?"

...

I assumed it was a rhetorical question. Anyway, this friend has 2 small kids so we of course gravitated to the kids section, where she bought nothing, and I bought this book.

For myself.

It has flaps.

It has clues.

It has riddles.

Did I mention it had flaps? Flaps are almost as good as pop-ups!

The book is beautiful, with a gorgeous spread and multiple show more flaps for each room of a house owned by an obviously very wealthy Great Aunt Martha. Behind each flap is a little fact about the object on the flap and they cover a multitude of subjects: art, music, inventions, history, and fashion.

Each spread also contains a clue to one of the flaps - this was, unfortunately, the most disappointing aspect of the book as the clues seemed easy to the point of insulting. Yes, yes, this is supposed to be a kids book, so the clues reflect that, I know. But the clues' simplicity seem disproportionate to the relative maturity of the facts the other flaps contain. There are a few concepts (like BC and AD, or royal executions as examples) that imply a higher level of education than clues that consist of "Stop Press! Read all about it! The answer is here in black and white!", which is easy enough that I don't even have to tell you the answer. Although perhaps in this digital age I'm giving kids too much credit.

Regardless, the facts were great but the clues too easy. But the book is lovely and I can't wait to show it to my nieces. show less

Somehow a bit lacklustre, although for a baby the gimmick that the pages are translucent and you can lay them over each other and the underwater scene changes will be more than enough (as a grownup, I kind of think it could have been executed better), and I have a soft spot for kids' stories of fish adventures because when I was a lad I wrote a series about Spado the angelfish and his friend Taadoal the guppy they were equal parts escaping from evil barracudas and winning at underwater show more soccer quidditch with obscure rules), and Humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa (Humuhumu for short) the reef triggerfish can join them I guess. show less

The Crims, the most inept crime family in Blandington, England are back and worse/better than ever.

Now that Big Nana has returned from her faked death, Imogen thinks she can return to her Queen Bee role at Blandington Primary. But a new girl named Ava Gud seems determined to take that title away, and Big Nana is convinced that their rivals, the Kruks, are out to get them. When family members begin disappearing one after the other, Imogen is forced to admit that she might be right and that show more there might be more important things than ruling the school.

Filled with laugh-out-loud moments, I hope this won't be the last book in the series. show less