Miss Maisie’s School for Wayward Girls is a stable home for young orphan Audacity Jones. She has good friends and good times but wishes for something to shake up the routine. When the school’s wealthy benefactor asks for a volunteer to come on a top-secret mission, problem solved—or is it?
Newbery Honor winner Kirby Larson plops Audie into an adventure that has real roots in history: a plot to kidnap President Taft’s niece. Audie still grieves for her lost parents but lives very much in the here and now, using intelligence and intuition to solve each new problem that comes along. She gets help not just from her chums back at school but from a paperboy, his stable-hand grandfather, some circus performers and a cat with a knack for detective work.
Avid and reluctant readers alike will appreciate the Punishment Room at Miss Maisie’s. Audie’s hesitation to go there conceals the fact that it’s an enormous library with snacks and a fireplace—and not a bad punishment after all.
With an afterword that breaks down the true and fictional aspects of the story, Audacity Jones to the Rescue is rich in history and vocabulary, but it’s also great fun.
This article was originally published in the February 2016 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.
