New Series - First Three Books! Meet Roxie Lane by A. de Glay

I had the opportunity to read the first three books in an amazing new series... for Grades 1-6...and older, of course, because these books have something built in that is unique and able to be considered by all...

The story setting take readers around the world, so we get to see a young female traveler heading to the homes of her many close and distant relatives...

And because of that, parts of the story are written in a different language, with definitions included at the end of a chapter... I have to admit I'm not good at picking up language without hearing the pronunciation so I was able to say only those words that I'd already heard...but it's a start... And with encouragement and time, I believe that readers will begin to learn words and language from each different country our traveler visits...

Now about the Mystery... Not only do you have the opportunity to read a good mystery written at the level that will be solvable for children, I believe... But, first, you will be given a mission for the book! Let's see what the mission was in France!

ROXIE LANE is in Paris... and she needs your help! Your mission: To find a stolen painting and uncover the mystery of the suitcase To succeed, you must: Your mission: To find a stolen painting and uncover the mystery of the suitcase To succeed, you must: · Discover famous monuments · · Visit museums · · Learn French words! ·

The upfront challenge to the reader, in my opinion, is an incentive to ensuring attention and to make reading the book almost a game...of learning... Now, Roxie Lane is not only a world-wide traveler, she is an amateur sleuth, so don't be surprised if Roxie starts wondering about something or somebody on the very first page!

For instance, when heading for France to visit Uncle Pierre, Aunt Marie and their family, she notices a particular man and his suitcase on the airplane... While she puts the man and a possible mystery aside to meet her family, she still ponders about it as she begins to spend time at her new away home...

First, they decided to tour on bicycles. I thought it was neat that there were bikes that you could rent for a small price! The first place they visited was the Pantheon. I thought you might like to ride along... Then music drew their attention... (at least I figured there had to be music there!)

But don't forget you'll stop along the way to fulfill your mission! Because along the way they found a newspaper that explained what had just happened!

"There was a theft at the Metropolitan Museum of Art," explained Tante Marie. "The self-portrait of famous painter Vincent Van Gogh has disappeared!"

Roxie, along with readers will immediately begin to think about this theft! Is it part of the mystery to be solved? Will Roxie try to figure out what is going on? Well, of course she will! But will she succeed?

I highly recommend this book...for all these different reasons of the mission!

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We're in Berlin! And listening to music written in the country by Bach!

Your mission: Solve the mystery of the eagle at the top of the Brandenburg Gate! To succeed, you'll have to: · discover Berlin's history · · visit famous monuments · · learn German words! ·

Now about the Mystery... Not only do you have the opportunity to read a good mystery written at the level that will be solvable for children, I believe... But, first, you will be given a mission for the book! Let's see what will be happening in Berlin...Have you learned about the Berlin Wall? If not, prepare to learn more from Roxie Lane's visit to Her Grandmother and Greta.... (but I did include a short video just for my blog readers!)
 Greta and Roxie had been out sightseeing when they stopped for lunch and had a German Sausage sandwich. When they were ready to leave and stopped to pay, the owner didn't hear them... Roxie immediately noticed that she was looking at a photo and was immediately interested... perhaps it would lead to another mystery, so Roxie started asking questions when she saw that the picture was of a young couple clearly very much in love...

"Wir möchten gerne Würstchen essen."

~~~

The woman was happy to share that she was the young girl and that he was the love of her life--"Und er ist meine einzige Liebe."--and they talked more only to learn that her loved one had disappeared! Well, you know Roxie was hoping to learn more about his disappearance and maybe bring this couple back together... So she started asking more questions about what had happened...

Then she explained that she and her love used to meet every evening near a monument called the Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg Gate was located between East and West Berlin. But one day, a wall appeared which forced all Germans to remain in their section. That wall divided Berlin for many years before it was taken down. And since the Brandenburg Gate was in the middle of East and West Berlin, it was cut off by the wall. No one could get to it! The old lady never saw her love again, even after the wall was taken down! She also lost something that meant a lot to her: her diary.

I must say that this turned out to be my favorite of the three stories--it's not often readers get a chance to learn about a mystery of lost love and try to figure out what had happened! But, to do so, Roxie and Greta had to proceed to learn more and to follow the mission requirements! Do you think they were successful? And did you know any of the German words which were used? I knew only a few, but there were many more for us to learn what each means...


This second in series is again highly recommended... Check out my review, next, when we meet in Spain!

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"Mi amiga, Evita Cruz, 

ha desaparecido!"

~~~

Your Mission: Find a missing girl and a stolen music score! To succeed, you'll need to: follow Roxie in Madrid go to Flamenco shows and learn Spanish words! (I used Children's Flamenco dance just for fun this first time!)

"Mi música!" he was crying. "Esta es mi música!"

~~~

Roxie is staying with her cousin, Ana, and while she is getting settled in, a friend comes to Ana upset because her friend, Evita Cruz, has disappeared... and later they learn that an original piece of music has been stolen!

Now there's a double mystery! A friend has disappeared, and a music composer has reported that his composition is gone...

While Ana is more excited to show Roxie a great time while she's there, she's not really interested in trying to solve a mystery... And would you believe when they attended a club where they could enjoy Flamenco dancing, that's when the pieces started to come together... Can you guess why?

A man began to play guitar again, but this time it was slower, though still very rhythmic. The melody was beautiful! The dancer made graceful movements with her hands and turned slowly around. Her eyes were of a strange violet shade that Roxie had seen before. She grabbed her binoculars. There was no doubt about it! The girl with the violet eyes and the dark curly hair... was none other than Evita Cruz!

~~~

After reading three of these books, I must say that I am impressed with Roxie Lane! If you were a fan of Nancy Drew, and remember enjoying that character, I can assure you that Roxie is just as clever, asks excellent and just the right questions necessary to move the story forward while she is solving the mystery. She is a personable young lady, and her inquisitiveness comes across as caring very much for the person who has been wronged...

Sure there are bad guys to deal with sometime, but there is so far little violence involved in their capture. At the same time, I enjoyed especially the stories that included personal mysteries to be solved, and Roxie helping those who needed her mystery-solving talents... 

With the added challenge of learning various languages, the entire series, thus far, is highly recommended.

GABixlerReviews

A. de Glay was born in New York City to French and American parents, and grew up bilingual. For the past ten years, she has taught English in French elementary schools. A lifelong fan of children's mystery books, she wrote her first children's book in 2016. Meant to help French children learn English, the book became popular with French mommy blogs. This led her to create an English version of her series, the Roxie Lane books. A. de Glay currently lives with her kitten in Paris, France.