REVIEW: "The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow" by Katherine Woodfine
About the Book...
✦ Title: The Mystery of the Clockwork Sparrow
✦ Author: Katherine Woodfine
✦ Genre: Historical Middle Grade Mystery
✦ Series: Book #1 of The Sinclair's Mysteries series
✦ Recommend for: ages 12/13+
My Personal Rating
Enter a world of bonbons, hats, perfumes and mysteries around every corner. Wonder at the daring theft of the priceless Clockwork Sparrow! Tremble as the most dastardly criminals in London enact their wicked plans! Gasp as our bold heroines, Miss Sophie Taylor and Miss Lilian Rose, crack codes, devour ice buns, and vow to bring the villains to justice…
💭My Thoughts
3 1/2 stars. This was good, I’m just not in the target market 😉 However, I think this would be a very entertaining read for many middle graders (or older people who just like middle grade books).
Prior to reading this, I hadn’t read a middle grade book since I was in middle grade, so that was an interesting experience. The mystery element reminded me a tiny bit of Nancy Drew, which was fun, and the book just had a very charming feel and neat writing style. I will say though that for some reason I had somewhat of a hard time keeping all the characters straight (and my sister who read it shortly after I did said the same thing), but by the end I understood everything well enough. Also- I believe this is called “head hopping”- there were multiple times when the POV would abruptly change within a scene, without any markers like chapter breaks, and that did bug me a bit but I don’t know that younger readers would even notice.
Overall, this was a really fun and entertaining read, and I would recommend it to middle graders or people slightly older who want a good mystery :)
⚠️ Some content notes
Lots of mild British slang; no real language stronger than “where the devil” (x2) and phrases such as "what in heaven's name (x2) as well as a "for God's sake" said by an adult; some cursing said by characters but not written out; some bullying; someone is shot- it is minimally described and not the biggest part of the plot, but it is said that there was a "dark pool blooming on the ground" around the body; some elements towards the second half of the book that could be scarier/more suspenseful for young readers, such as being drugged, being trapped, trying to stop a bomb set to go off and harm people at a party; no real romance, but some very light attraction between characters.
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Bookishly yours,
Lottie M.
