The Ring of Rocamadour

The Red Blazer Girls #1

by Michael D. Beil

The perfect series for kids who loved THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more mysteries!

Edgar Award Nominee for Best Mystery!

"With wit, cunning, snappy dialogue and superior math skills,  The Red Blazer Girls  represent the best of girl-detectives while still feeling relatable and real. Nancy Drew would be right at home with this group." --  Huffington Post 's 15 Greatest Kid Detectives List

It all began with The Scream. And ended with . . . well, if we told you that, it wouldn’t be a mystery! But in between The Scream and The Very Surprising Ending, three friends find themselves on a scavenger hunt set up for a girl they never met, in search of a legendary ring reputed to grant wishes. Are these sleuths in school uniforms modern-day equivalents of Nancy, Harriet, or Scooby? Not really, they’re just three nice girls who decide to help out a weird lady, and end up hiding under tables, tackling word puzzles and geometry equations, and searching rather moldy storage rooms for “the stuff that dreams are made of” (that’s from an old detective movie). Oh, and there’s A Boy, who complicates things. As boys often do.

Intrigued? The Red Blazer Girls offers a fun, twisty adventure for those who love mystery, math (c’mon, admit it!), and a modest measure of mayhem.

Michael Beil, a New York City high school English teacher and life-long mystery fan, delivers a middle-grade caper that's perfect for middle-grade readers who have finished THE LEMONADE WAR series and are ready for more advanced mysteries!

Genres: Mystery, Middle Grade, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Juvenile, Realistic Fiction

298 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2009

About the author

In a time not long after the fifth extinction event, Edgar Award-nominated author Michael D. Beil came of age on the shores of Pymatuning Lake, where the ducks walk on the fish. (Look it up. Seriously.) For reasons that can’t be disclosed until September 28, 2041, he now lives somewhere in Portugal with his wife and their two white cats, Bruno and Maisie. He still gets carsick if he has to ride in the back seat for long and feels a little guilty that he doesn’t keep a journal.

Reviews

[Ivonne Rovira · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 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.

[Kathryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun, fun, fun! I SO enjoyed reading this story of four friends attending Catholic middle school in NYC and the unexpected mystery they find themselves unraveling in hopes of finding a lost and very valuable birthday present that's been hidden for over twenty years--one that will have even more worth if it can help bring a divided family back together again. I love that the girls are fun and spunky and unabashedly into their school subjects, totally geeking out over Charles Dickens and geometry without being the stereotypical "nerds." I love that some of their teachers totally rock (um, their English teacher is named George Eliot, and hosts a Dickens of a Banquet every year in which he portrays Dickens himself, awesome!) I love that one of the Catholic priests is totally nice and helpful and looks a little like a cute hobbit. (Admittedly, the Catholic church and Catholic school haven't been getting the best press in recent years, so it's refreshing to see it this way--not that the book is at all proselytizing, but Catholic school and Mass and whatnot are just presented as normal parts of the girls' lives.) The girls have to solve clues having to do with English, mathematics and theology in order to find the location of the "treasure" (given the title, it's not too much to say that it's a special ring!) I think the story will best be enjoyed by those who already enjoy literature because of all the literary references, and I admit that I was not super excited over all the math sections (I don't really dig math) but I really appreciated them being there. And any middle grade novel that mentions Thomas Aquinas has gotta get some props! ;-)

I did not love that the girls occasionally use some mild profanity and I could have done with a bit less attention to the Sophie/Leigh Ann/Rafael love triangle--but it's all done pretty innocently. I was also not too big a fan of the girls sneaking out at night to go to clandestine meetings about the mystery. I was cool with them not telling their parents about the mystery--I mean, every kid is allowed their own private world--but it wasn't addressed too much that it was potentially dangerous to go wandering the streets of NYC at 10 o'clock at night without one's parents knowing where one is--and, oh, forgetting to charge your cell phone. But, they are really very good girls, otherwise. So, by and large, I think it's pretty harmless.

Overall, this was a really fun and enjoyable mystery. "Nancy Drew" blasts to the 21st century complete with a snazzy new red blazer from Saint Veronica's School and I, for one, am digging it :-)

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so much fun! It is the first in the Red Blazer Girls series of mysteries. The four girls attend a private English Catholic school in New York City. They are all curious, adventuresome, and enthusiastic seventh-graders, each with her own unique personality, talents, and family background. There are ecstatic moments of camaraderie as well as times of doubt, disappointment, and insecurity but through it all, they remain forgiving, tolerant, and supportive.

The narration by Tai Alexandra Ricci of the audiobook was superb and very convincing!

[Shauna · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Book Diva brought this to Aerie. I was really excited about it's high ratings and surprise ending. (it's for those who love mystery, math and a modest measure of mayhem) It sounded perfect for her.She loves math, mystery and mayhem! And the second book is all about a vanishing violin--what could be more fitting? However, after she read it for an hour or so during Sallie's group class today, she said, "I really don't like it." I told her I was surprised that she didn't like it, because it seemed to have all the ingredients for a book she would love. (Besides having been nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Children's Mystery). Later I found out that she was really uncomfortable with the language. She said there is a lot of the "G" word and a lot of the "D" word. I skimmed the first half of the book, and yep, she was right. In an effort to sound colloquial, the seventh grade girls speak in a way that is unacceptable to our family. I was proud that Aerie would put it aside due to language considerations . . . especially when I was urging her to just "give it a try."

[Danica · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't appreciate the language and some of the content of this book. It's a children's book right? I know some kids may be raised like this, but I don't want my kids to start speaking like these girls.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

i used to go on family road trips through new england every summer when i was about 13-ish, and we’d always have an audiobook or two for the trip. one year, this was the audiobook (we possibly also brought the sequel, but that is unconfirmed) and i have been meaning to reread it for ages. and now i have reread it! look at me go.

some of the big critiques other reviewers have seem to lie with the characters and the language. i personally do not give a flying fuck about the language (exhibit a) and apparently my parents didn’t really care either because they sat and listened to the entire thing with me and my younger brother and i don’t remember them saying anything about it. we both grew up to be well-adjusted and functional adults who are still close with our parents; clearly hearing the characters say ‘damn’ a few times did not cause us any harm. however, i can see where they’re coming from re: the characters and i kinda agree. the lack of curfew or supervision they have make them seem older than 12 years old and in grade 7. as a kid i just wrote it off as a new york thing but as an adult i had some difficulty believing that these are middle schoolers.

i thought the puzzles were well done and i liked that the author gave readers a chance to solve it themselves. the stakes were low even for a middle grade mystery though, so it would have been nice to see them be a little higher. overall it’s a four star book for me, keeping in mind it’s middle grade fiction and my experience is clouded by nostalgia.

[Reading Vacation · Rating 5 out of 5]

REVIEW
Do you like puns? This mystery was full of them and they made me laugh. Oh, and there was a dash of romance mixed in. This mystery also had geometry problems and word puzzles to solve. How’s that for unique?
The idea of a girl detective made me think of Nancy Drew, but Nancy was always older. I loved that The Red Blazer Girls were in middle school and Sophie is a “reader.” This made it easy for me to relate to them. I also liked how well they got along and worked together.
The plot definitely kept my attention and it was not at all predictable. That is the perfect combination for a good mystery if you ask me.
A must-read for all those readers who long for an old-fashioned mystery. If only I knew why the copyright page was printed backwards. Now that’s a mystery to solve!
RATING
5 Plot
4 Characters
5 Attention Grabbing
5 Girlie Meter
4 Ending

23 TOTAL

5 STARS

Review is available on the Reading Vacation Blog http://tinyurl.com/2g5jnlu

[Melissa ONeal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. I had passed it several times in the library and thought it looked interesting. While the plot is engaging, the language occasionally used really turned me off. At one point in the book, Sophie says that her parents once talked about "their first-times" over dinner with her friends. As a teacher, I cannot fathom recommending this to my upper elementary students, even the ones that are mature enough. Mild profanity is placed throughout as well, but does not add to the book. Had those things been left out, I would have happily bought a copy for my classroom library.

[Lou · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesante pero me pareció que el autor se esforzó demasiado por sonar como adolescente y eso hizo que la narración fuera un tanto extraña. El misterio fue pintoresco y la inclusión de enigmas me gustó. Sin embargo no lo disfruté tanto como hubiese querido.

[Patti Sabik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun “treasure hunt” style mystery with friend drama and a dash of romance. Great character interaction with witty banter.

[DALZ · Rating 4 out of 5]

rereading my childhood bookshelf! truly loved this one back in the day

[~just one hopeless romantic~ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was great. I loved the drama, the characters, and the mystery! I don’t know why people say it was horrible because of the bad words. They are 7th graders for crying out loud! There parents probably know that they are saying bad words! This book was amazing!

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but I am unsure of who the target audience is. The language seemed more geared toward middle school age children, but the friendships and mystery were very child like. I teach 4th grade in the south so maybe I am prudish, but I would not feel comfortable having this book on my shelf for the quality of the book. I think The Westing Game has a much better example of a middle grade mystery.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my- this book is awesome! I'm intrigued enough to have already ordered another book in the series as soon as I started to read it. This is the first book in the series, written by a teacher. Narrated in the first person by Sophie St. Pierre, she tells of her adventures with her friends, Margaret Wroble, Rebecca Chen, and Leigh Ann Jaimes, all 7th graders at St. Veronica's girl school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. The girls meet a slightly batty elderly lady who lives in the old nunnery attached to St. Veronica's Church and she tells them that she has just found a note that her deceased father wrote to her estranged daughter just before he died 20 years earlier. The note is a riddle that will lead them to other clues to find a fabulous treasure that he hid for his granddaughter's 14th birthday. He was a known archeologist. It takes all of the girls' intellect to figure out each clue, which leads them to another clue. Margaret, a Polish immigrant, is especially brainy, and figures out all the mathematical clues. I had forgotten all of those mathematical formulas and it was fun to see them used in a mystery story. The literature ones were also interesting. This is a solid mystery book with clues that are deciphered by the sleuths and it's a race to find the treasure, which is a centuries-old ring (that's not a spoiler- it says on the dust jacket what the treasure is) and find it before some unknown party gets to it first. Mystery, intrigue, danger- what more could you want in a mystery book? Oh yeah, since it's about 7th grade girls and written for young teens, there's a bit of angst over a cute boy. My only very minor complaint is that, although Margaret, Rebecca, and Leigh Ann are really well defined, the reader doesn't get to know Sophie as well, even though she is the narrator of the book. But there are 3 or 4 more books in the series!

[Madeline Smoot · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a kid, I read Nancy Drew nearly every day in fourth grade. (I also read The Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden, The Bosbey Twins, Cherry Ames, The Three Investigators and pretty much every mystery like these except for The Boxcar Children. I somehow missed The Boxcar Children.)

You can probably guess that I liked mystery series as a kid. So imagine how excited I when the BookPeople buyer handed me a new children’s mystery series for girls. I even like to think of it as the Nancy Drew for the modern girl. I present:

The Red Blazer Girls
In this series Sophie, Margaret, and Rebecca are in school together in Manhattan where they meet an older woman next door who has just uncovered the first clue of a mystery. Intrigued, the girls decide to follow the (math-based) clues to try and find the treasure hidden at the end. Of course, other nefarious characters are also after the treasure, and the girls must use their wits to outsmart them.

It’s a fun, fast-paced, easy read (except for the math.) Fortunately, you don’t have to solve the early algebra & geometry math to read the story since the girls work on the problems in the actual text of the story. And the girls are fun characters too. Each one has her own distinct personality along with strengths and weaknesses. Unlike Nancy Drew where George was too tom-boy and Bess too feminine while Nancy exemplified balance, all three girls are more realistic.

A great rainy-day read, I would recommend this for children ages 10 & up based on vocabulary and a few tense situations.

[Gabs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a laugh out loud mystery which had me giggling from the very beginning! Even the chapters have hilarious names.

I hadn't really read an honest-to-goodness mystery in a while, so I checked this book out at my library after Goodreads recommended it to me. I started reading it and I was hooked. The narrator, Sophie, is extremely funny. So is Mr. Eliot. He made a comment about 'Randy Bob Shakespeare' that had me snorting in laughter. All the girls have their own unique talents, as well as their own unique flaws, and all of them are easy to relate to. The teachers are actually pretty cool in this story as well. I wish some of my seventh grade teachers had been as nice as this. And any story that can successfully integrate the pythagoream theorem into juvenile fiction is a winner in my book.

The plot was not as predictable as it may seem at first. I could see a few people guessing it, but in a lot of mysteries, the ending of the story is so obvious that a two year old could figure out the ending. It wasn't like that in here.

So, all in all, it was a fun mystery that had me turning page after page. It's a great mystery for kids and teens.

This review can be found on http://myfullbookshelfreviews.blogspo...

[Jessi · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok and probably most of my beefs are with the reading, since I listened to this book. The woman reading did a good job with the voices, but her portrayal of the older woman kept making me think she was trying to pull one over on the girls. I was waiting for the cat to be let out of the bag. Instead the flip was someone else. Maybe I just wanted to dislike her for her over-niceness. My second problem was with the "teaching moments". They were painfully obvious and I could imagine the kids rolling their eyes at them. Than again, maybe learning about the pythagorean theorem before learning geometry would make it more palatable when the time came...

I am also just a little tired of well off caucasian girls in ya and j lit. I am sure that the ya and j readers aren't, though. And yes, Margaret is Polish and Rebecca is Asian, but Sophie is the cool white girl with a lot of shopping potential and lattes coming out of her nose.

It has potential,and I am sure this will be a series.

[KayLee J.]

I recently finished The Red Blazer Girls by Michael D. Beil. This book is great for people who like mystery, math, and a lot of action! Sophie's scream began it all... After searching the school's church attic the girls find a secret passage way leading to the mysterious Ms. Harrimans home. She sets on an adventure to find the ring of Racamoudor. The author does a really good job describing the setting. It's like a painted picture in my mind of what everything looks like. The next few chapters are a lot of solving math problems, and figuring out where the ring is hidden. The author makes the book like a tongue twister because he tricks you into believing one thing but ends up the other way around. I can connect with the Red Blazer Girls because of their determination. it seems like almost all the books I read the characters all keep having determination. This book was filled with surprises and a fun girly twist. It is a really Good Read.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book did not live up to my expectations. The plot itself was interesting enough, but nothing to write home about. The three main characters are supposed to be 7th grade girls, but their behavior would be more appropriate for high-school aged girls. They stay out late without any major consequences from their parents. They hang out at the local coffee shop (where'd they get that kind of money?). The mild language (hells and damns and Oh my G*d regularly) doesn't belong in the speech of a 12 year old. Plus the main narrator has a love interest throughout the book which, I mean, come on - she's 12 for Pete's sake. If the author had made the girls 4 or 5 years older, I would have had no problem with it.

This is nothing like Nancy Drew. Nancy is 18 years old, and so it isn't odd for her to be able to roam around with little supervision. These are 12 year olds pretending to be adults. Meh.

[Jackeline Fernandes · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this book, Sophie turns from foolish and stupid to clever. This is because she is the one who solves the riddle of: who doesn't belong in the list? It was a list of characters from the books of Charles Dickens. It turns out that the character which doesn't belong is a girl while the others are boys. Here is a quote that proves her smart wits: "It's Esther Summerson!, said Sophie.'She's the only female! Jeez, I've come a long way. Sorry Margaret, I think I stole your place of being the smart one." This quote proves that she is now thinking logically and intelligently because she was able to solve the puzzle. Sophie actually figured it out before Margaret, the most intelligent of the four friends, did. This book was an amazing book. I really liked how some parts of the book were puzzles that I could attempt to solve. After all, it is a mystery book!

[Christopher Sumpter · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought this would be a good "Winston Breen"-style mystery that I could recommend to my tween son. Unfortunately, it failed to live up to that standard. Content-wise and style-wise, it was a fun read; but the puzzles were sub-par. For the most part, they were too easily solved, probably even for kids. And one of them leads to a detailed instructions on how to plot lines on a coordinate plane. However, the real reason I won't be recommending it to my son is the language the girls use. There is a lot of mild profanity (primarily taking God's name in vain, but several other inappropriate-for-seventh-grader epithets). The girls are all big coffee fans and have no trouble wandering around NYC at night alone. They didn't strike me as particularly realistic 12-year-olds.

[ava! · Rating 5 out of 5]

ok tbh I read this when I was 11 and my mom gave my copy to her coworker BC she was at one point writing a mystery novel anyway I can’t remember a lot of specifics BUT this book was good, excellent ensemble, love the priests/catholic school setting, mystery was excellent, etc. overall a really fun read and becca was gay

reread notes .... this book feels so nostalgic to me like this is the series i always point to as defining my childhood tastes, interests, even the fact that i pursued writing. i never read harry potter or any of those bigger series but rereading this 10 years after the first time i got this book (a gift from my mom, christmas 2010) really does feel like coming home. i can’t believe how much as changed since then but it’s nice to know i can always come back :)

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the puzzles and the story...fun mystery for middle grade readers. In my opinion, this was similar to but not as good as Blue Balliet's mysteries. I was also surprised that the characters used mild profanity and the Lord's name in vain, particularly because they are Catholic school girls. Also, they did run around NYC with little/no supervision which felt off to me since they are only in junior high. So overall, I liked it but didn't love it. My daughter started it and decided not to finish..didn't hold her attention.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent juvenile mystery about a group of New York Catholic School girls who discover what appears to be a clue in an old scavenger hunt, and work to uncover the rest of the clues and solve an old mystery. This mystery series is on a par with the Sammy Keyes series, with likeable characters and a great plot.

[Carterkempgmail.Com · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this, but while I thought this was sharp, witty and well written, Iwon't recommend it to many 5th graders. I think they would have too much trouble with the constant stream of literary references, Roman Catholic references, even the pop culture references would confuse the 5th graders at my school. That and the boy/girl stuff places this solidly as a middle school book IMHO.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very Nancy Drew meets The Princess Diaries, but as I've always been a sucker for girls' mystery series a la Nancy and the Boxcar Children (to say nothing of The Princess Diaries), this book gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

if Nancy Drew was modern and did more work with her friends than alone, & went to prep school, she might be part of the gang. Character diversity & some real preteen struggling (boys, ugh, they're the worst) gives some fun to this group of good gone detectives.

[Jamie Segno · Rating 3 out of 5]

The use of brainteasers and math puzzles creatively provided interaction with the book and shows teens when they might ever use this "school stuff."

[H · Rating 1 out of 5]

About 72 ish pages before dropping. Things I disliked: attempts at humor that weren't funny like the chapter titles being long and trying to sound whimsical, all four female girls as protagonist so harder for me as male to identify esp with scenes like her talking of how *hot* the Raf boy is (and I disliked him too cause he smoked and carried a knife and was immature prior to sixth grade and it sounds like they all became friends because he became cuter, not as much because of a great personality or inner character), the girls know the maid Winifred is snooping and eavesdropping but do NOT warn Miss Harriman right away and walk away not doing ANYTHING, and the biggest kicker is that it takes 70+ pages to reach the solution of the first true "puzzle" which is the main reason I wanted to read the story (I liked Winston Breen and heard this book was similar - mystery book with puzzles throughout) BUT the puzzle isn't even fucking solvable by the reader since it requires knowledge of religion and the Bible verses and Jesus stuff which leads them all to a location in the book with a painting and the next clue. Readers wouldn't be able to solve that or know of the painting in their place or that that was what the clue referred to. Lastly I just disliked the setting being a religious all girls school and didn't really care for any characters. None were particularly fun, funny, heartfelt, memorable or relatable. Dropped for all these negative reasons.

[Claire Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made you think about what was going to happen, and I definatley did not see the plot twist coming. It all starts when one of the Red Blazer Girls, Sophie thinks she sees a ghost. So, her and her friends go explore in the church that is connected to the school and find an elderly woman lives next to the church and frequently visits the church. The elderly lady, Ms. Harriman starts the Red Blazer girls on a mystery that puzzles them and they don't stop until they find the answer, even if it includes some possible breaking of the law. Ms. Harriman wants the girls to help find her the Ring of Rocamadour which she believes is in the church and is rightfully her daughter's. Ms. Harriman's father was a great archeologist and has left clues for Caroline, her daughter to follow except for the fact that Caroline has moved and no longer lives near the church. So, Sophie and her friends take on the case and make new friends, along with enemies. At the end of the book, Sophie finds out that Malcom, Ms. Harriman's ex-husband really is a good bye and the person that she trusted because he was the church executive, is the bad guy. Not only that, but he was also going after the Ring of Rocamadour because his wife, Winnie, is the housekeeper for Ms. Harriman and evesdropped on the conversations whenever the girls were over at the house. In the end, Sophie and the girls find the ring with the help of Malcom and a priest they met along the way named Father Julian. Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good mystery book.