Alice-Miranda At School

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 13 JUNE 2011

Australian author Harvey launches a promising series that stars fearless Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones. At seven-and-one-quarter years old she is ready for adventure and eager to take on her first year at Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies, an elite boarding school that is part of her family s history. Ever vigilant, as soon as Alice-Miranda arrives at the academy, her instincts kick in: There was not a thing out of place. But from the moment Alice-Miranda entered the grounds she had a strange feeling that something was missing and she was usually right about her strange feelings. But when Alice-Miranda approaches the school s headmistress, Miss Grimm, to discuss the problems she perceives at the school (the head prefect is difficult, the cook badly needs a vacation, and the gardener just wants to be allowed to plant flowers), Miss Grimm not only refuses to hear her, but also seems resigned to making Alice-Miranda s first year as difficult as possible. Alice-Miranda s precociousness can sometimes be cloying, but her effervescent personality lends itself well to the novel s hyperbolic atmosphere, and her optimism is contagious. Ages 7 10.