The Ring of Rocamadour

The Ring of Rocamadour, the debut to The Red Blazer Girls mystery series, is a valentine to New York City and the thousands of plaid-skirted parochial school girls that swarm Upper Manhattan. It made the decades that I’ve been gone just melt away and inspired a nostalgia-tinged smile.

Seventh-grader Sophie St. Pierre and her friends/classmates at St. Veronica’s Catholic School on East 68th Street in Manhattan, Margaret Wroble and Rebecca Chen, are genuinely big-hearted, intellectually curious, and plucky. The threesome serendipitously meet the elderly Elizabeth Harriman, who has only just found a long-lost birthday card from 20 years ago. It holds the first clue in a scavenger hunt for the valuable birthday present he obtained for show more Ms. Harriman’s daughter, Caroline, who was turning 14 and was herself then a student at St. Veronica’s; old Mr. Harriman died on the eve of the girl’s birthday. He never had a chance to give Caroline the birthday card, and no one ever knew about the scavenger hunt — or the gift — until now. The addled Ms. Harriman turns to Sophie and her pals for help in finding and solving the clues. The Red Blazer Girls — as they dub themselves due to their school uniform — prove more than up to the task of solving puzzles and deciphering math problems, including one involving the Pythagorean Theorem, to help Ms. Harriman find her birthday present — and perhaps something more.

While readers from Middle America may disbelieve that seventh-graders would traipse all around the city, as a native New Yorker, I can testify that private-school kids routinely walk and take the bus or subway all over the borough of Manhattan. In New York, parochial school attendance doesn’t signify wealth, even at a school in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, just as Sophie notes in the book’s first few pages. Author Michael D. Beil, a teacher at a Catholic girl’s school quite like St. Veronica’s, portrays Sophie, Rebecca, Margaret, and their new friend Leigh Ann Jaimes as girls every bookworm would love to know. Is their English teacher, Mr. Eliot, possibly Beil’s alter ego?

Sure, sometimes the schoolgirls in this middle-grade mystery ring too good to be true; however, the girls’ positive attitude towards books and math will come as a welcome relief to studious girls everywhere, girls sick of novels featuring shallow pretty little rich girls and anti-intellectual Goth rebels. I wish I’d had Sophie and company as role models when I was a lonely geeky junior-high student in the 1970s, before geek was even a word — much less cool. Highly recommended. show less

This is a DaVinci Code wannabe for tweens. As a mystery it is boring, as a lesson plan it is rather interesting. It is clearly designed to prove to tweens, particularly girls, that math, history, and literature are fun. As a lesson plan for use in the classroom it is structured much the same as the Blue Balliet books, however, where those succeed this one doesn't. This will be a series and I hope it improves as the series moves along. I would recommend this to teachers who want to use it in math classes to illustrate points or generate interest in geometry, but as a mystery it falls flat. I listened to the recorded version of this book and had problems with the narrator. It is clear that she is an older woman trying to speak like a show more tween and it doesn't work. She comes off sounding snobby. show less

What a smart mystery! Four girls put their heads together to solve a twenty-year-old mystery with elements of classic literature, math, and art. A great way to reignite passions for mysteries in children's literature.

Book talk: The mystery really starts with Sophie screaming in her seventh grade English class, and that was page one. Yes, the mystery really does get off to a great start that quickly. Sophie and her friends are not your ordinary seventh grade girls. They go to a private Catholic girls' school in New York City on the upper east side of Manhattan. These girls may all dress alike in their uniforms with the red blazers, but each brings something unique to the story. Margaret is über-brainy, and Rebecca is pretty quick with the wisecracks. Then there is the new girl, Leigh Ann. She's perfect, in every way, and she's probably after Raf, the guy that Sophie has known, like, forever, but whom she now seems to like in a different way . . . show more though she won't admit it. Then there is the mystery to solve, complete with a scavenger hunt that takes them all around the church in places they aren't supposed to be. You see, that scream led to Sophie meeting a wealthy, elderly lady trying to solve a 20-year-old puzzle. But there are other not-so-trustworthy people also trying to solve the puzzle. The Ring of Rocamadour is priceless; it's part of a pair of rings said to be a gift to a young couple centuries ago. In fact, the young couple's rings touched the famous veil used to wipe the face of Christ. the rings were passed down through the centuries, and those who wear the rings, it is said, are visited in their dreams by St. Veronica, who answers their prayers. The groom's ring was found in the ruins of a twelfth-century chapel near Rocamadour, France, and was donated to a museum. Sophie and her pals are looking for the missing Bride's ring. Could it be buried in the church? Could the clues really be from a long-lost birthday card? Read The Red Blazer Girls book one, and whatever you do, don't miss the catchy chapter titles. (They were some of my favorite parts of the book!) show less

The story was exciting and the puzzles were good. I liked the fact that there was an actual plot besides the mystery to get drawn into. However (and this is why it gets only 3 stars), I was disappointed with the amount and type of language. I don't think that it was appropriate for the age group that will be reading this book. But, if one ignores that, the book can be enjoyable.

Sophie see's a woman in a window at school and drags two of her friends. The women needs help solving a twenty year old mystery that may reunite her with her estranged daughter. In addition to the mystery there are boy problems, a Great Expectations skit and an evil deacon.

This was a cute little mystery. There wasn't anything super exciting about it. If you think about it enough a couple chapters in and you can figure out who dunnit. The girls are sweet and likable as are many of the other characters (except the bad guy of course.)

My one complaint is that there was math. The girls need to solve a series of puzzles and the whole thing leads to some plane geometry. Oh there were vicious vicious flashbacks. I was not happy.

There is also show more a slightly religious aspect to the entire thing, however it's mostly from a historical perspective and no one's being beat over the head with anything. All of the parts discussed end up being relevent to the story. show less

Sophie see's a woman in a window at school and drags two of her friends. The women needs help solving a twenty year old mystery that may reunite her with her estranged daughter. In addition to the mystery there are boy problems, a Great Expectations skit and an evil deacon.

This was a cute little mystery. There wasn't anything super exciting about it. If you think about it enough a couple chapters in and you can figure out who dunnit. The girls are sweet and likable as are many of the other characters (except the bad guy of course.)

My one complaint is that there was math. The girls need to solve a series of puzzles and the whole thing leads to some plane geometry. Oh there were vicious vicious flashbacks. I was not happy.

There is also show more a slightly religious aspect to the entire thing, however it's mostly from a historical perspective and no one's being beat over the head with anything. All of the parts discussed end up being relevent to the story. show less