Title: Edie Amelia and the Monkey Shoe Mystery
Author: Sophie Lee
Publisher: Pan Macmillan, A$12.99
Format: Softcover
Language: English
EAN: 9780330424189
For ages: 7+
Type: Junior Fiction
About: I have always enjoyed reading Sophie Lee's work and it was with pleasure that I dove into her first children's chapter book - Edie Amelia and the Monkey Shoe Mystery - a mouthful of a title that's fit for a suitably plot-woven story.
I really enjoy a junior fiction novel that doesn't skimp on a relatively intricate plot or sophisticated wordage, with colourful characters, lots of action and maybe even a little silliness. Wonderfully, Lee doesn't do any skimping in Edie Amelia.
With bizarre parents - an out-of-work inventor for a dad and a writer of macrobiotic cookbooks for a mum - Edie Amelia has become awfully good at containing chaos, coralling clutter and keeping order in a house oft piled high with scientific renderings and sweet and sour tofu balls.
When prepping for her birthday party (during which time her mother begins decorating the birthday marquee with salmon skins...), Edie Amelia is horrified to discover one of her treasured monkey shoes missing. How on earth can she attend her upcoming birthday party without said adornments shodding her feet?
That's when the real fun begins. With the aid of her adorable pup, Mr Pants, and reluctant friend Charisma (a.k.a. Cheesy Chompster, so called because of the masses of cauliflower cheese she eats on a regular basis), Edie Amelia embarks on an intrepid search for her monkey shoe that takes her from the curiously treasure-filled rubbish tip to the depths of Chinatown, where Edie uncovers more than a missing shoe mystery.
With lovely visual descriptions, fun, quirky and amiable characters (one also develops a real affection for the main character, which is not always a given), this fanciful book has certainly prepped Lee for more Edie Amelia adventures. I, for one, would be keen to see what this delightful and whimsical character gets up to next.
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