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The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Alexander McCall Smith (Author), Nerys Hughes (Narrator)
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)


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Book Description

November 1997 Harriet Bean
From the author of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series!

Knopf Canada is very proud to announce the first-ever Canadian publication of bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith’s books for young readers, featuring the extraordinary Harriet Bean.

In the first book, The Lost Five Aunts of Harriet Bean, Alexander McCall Smith takes readers into the world of 9-year-old Harriet, who lives alone with her father, an absentminded inventor of extraordinary but useless things. When Harriet’s father tells her one day that she has five aunts–his sisters–that he’s never told her about before, and with whom he tragically lost touch in childhood, Harriet is delighted, and determined to track down each of her colourful aunts one-by-one. Will Harriet Bean be able to reunite her father and his sisters–Veronica, Harmonica, Majolica, and the twins, Japonica and Thessalonika?

“Strangely enough, I didn’t even know I had any aunts until I was nine. Then, quite out the blue, my father said to me one day:

‘Your aunts would like to hear about that!’

I forget what it was my aunts would have liked to hear about–I was so astonished to hear that they even existed.

‘Aunts?’ I said in surprise. ‘What aunts?’

‘Oh,’ said my father, rather vaguely, as if it weren’t at all important. ‘All those aunts of yours. You know–my sisters. All those aunts you have.’”

–Excerpt from The Lost Five Aunts of Harriet Bean
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 2-4–An offhand comment from her father sets nine-year-old Harriet Bean on the path of finding the five aunts whom she has never known. This seems like the perfect start of a juicy family mystery but it never quite turns into one. When given the full story of her father's loss of his five older sisters and a clue to the whereabouts of one of them, Harriet embarks on a hasty journey of collection. Useful coincidences make the women ridiculously easy to locate; it also helps that the final two are mind readers and come seeking her. The real mystery is how the father can possibly be absentminded enough to misplace five sisters. All of them are likable characters with interesting personality quirks and gadgets: strong-woman Veronica uses pedal power to drive her circus trailer from city to city, and twin detectives Thessalonika and Japonica are masters of disguise with convincing costumes. It is these two who give Harriet the chance to solve a mystery in the sequel, which takes place at a racetrack's stables. Masquerading as a jockey, Harriet is confronted with a villain who uses glue to stick a horse's feet to the floor so that he won't run well the next day. It's contrived stuff such as this that takes most of the charm out of this easy chapter-book series.–Kathleen Meulen, Blakely Elementary School, Bainbridge Island, WA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

Praise for internationally bestselling author Alexander McCall Smith:

“At a certain point in reading the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books, I experienced something I haven’t felt
since reading Nancy Drew books as a child. I no longer wanted to read about Mma Ramotswe: I wanted to be her.”
The Vancouver Sun --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Audio Cassette
  • Publisher: Chivers Audio Books; Unabridged edition (November 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0745173926
  • ISBN-13: 978-0745173924
  • Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,092,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alexander McCall Smith was born in what is now Zimbabwe and taught law at the University of Botswana. He is now Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He has written more than fifty books, including a number of specialist titles, but is best known for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, which has achieved bestseller status on four continents. In 2004 he was awarded British Book Awards Author of the Year and Booksellers Association Author of the Year. He lives in Scotland, where in his spare time he is a bassoonist in the RTO (Really Terrible Orchestra).

 

Customer Reviews

4 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Desperately Seeking Sisters, June 14, 2006
By 
Jon Linden (Warren, N.J. United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   
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In this second book in the "Harriet Bean" series, McCall Smith brings us an interesting and fanciful story. Harriet discovers that her father has 5 sisters, but that he has lost touch with them. To increase the mystery, her father produces a picture of all of them, himself included, without any faces. The painter had been sent away before he was able to paint faces, for lack of additional funds.

Harriet is irresistibly drawn to find them. Her need to complete the picture of her family is virtually obsessive. Yet it is truly appropriate. For most people in the end, it turns out to be family that is the most important and the most long lasting of friends and companions. Perhaps this is the primary lesson of Smith's book.

In particular, this young to young adult book is specially focused on character development. While Smith always pays attention to character, here for children, he is especially careful. Each of the missing sisters has a distinct character, in fact character is often the method by which Harriet finds the ones that are missing. As an interesting twist, Smith makes two of Harriet's sisters, detectives who run a "Ladies Detective Agency" reminiscent of Smith's other series on that topic. Imagine the wondrous detective stories Smith will weave for us when he puts Harriet together with her Aunts the detectives.

The book is recommended for all readers from age 5 to 105. It is fun, it is interesting and it is well written.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best Chapter Book my Kids have Read, January 9, 2007
This is the best chapter book my kids (six-year-old girls) have read, and they've read a lot. Before discovering the Harriet Bean series, they would sit down and read only one chapter of a book. After receiving "The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean" and "Harriet Bean and the League of Cheats" as gifts, however, they couldn't put them down. They immediately read "Five Lost Aunts"--in one sitting--and read "The League of Cheats" the next day, also in one sitting.

Like my daughters, I love every book in the Harriet Bean series. ("The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean" is first in the series, followed by "Harriet Bean and the League of Cheats" and then "The Cowgirl Aunt of Harriet Bean.") In my own list of favorite chapter books, this series is tied for # 1 (along with the "Sarah Plain and Tall" series). It reminds me a bit of the Junie B. Jones series because it is hilarious, but it is better written. It's also more engaging than Junie B. because it's a mystery, and kids are compelled to keep reading not only because of the humor but also because they are driven to find out how the mystery is solved.

I strongly disagree with the reviewer from the "School Library Journal," who says the Harriet Bean books are contrived. This review misses the point of the genre. The point is not to have a realistic plot but rather to engage children with humor, charming characters, and suspense.

I also appreciate the strong female protagonists in this series. My favorite scene is when Harriet learns about her aunt Veronica, who is a strong-woman in a circus. Veronica was originally told that, as a female, she couldn't enter a strong-man contest, but she enters in disguise and beats all the boys and men. This is one of the most hilarious, gratifying, and empowering scenes I've encountered in a children's book.

I can't recommend this series strongly enough. It will engage good readers (the writing is very well-crafted), and it will inspire reluctant readers to keep reading, just as the Harry Potter series does. I wish Alexander McCall Smith would write more books in this series!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Books!, March 31, 2009
My 6-year-old grand-daughter loves these books! We recommended them to cousins (boy-7 and girl 10) and they love them, too. I like reading them to her. They are interesting, funny and easy to read. We highly recommend them, even to kids who aren't much into reading. They will love these stories!
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