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stephanienicole's review
3.0
This series is about siblings Xena and Xander, two American kids who just moved to London with their parents, who find out they are related to Sherlock Holmes when they are tapped into the Society for the Preservation of Famous Detectives. The SPFD gives them a casebook of Sherlock's unsolved cases, and Xena and Xander, having inherited some of their great ancestor's deductive abilities, try to solve old mysteries. In this book, they are trying to solve the case of a missing Ancient Egyptian amulet, lost over a hundred years ago, which may have magical powers. Reading the previous books in the series is not necessary to enjoy this story, but I think reading the first book would better explain how these two kids starting solving old Sherlock Holmes mysteries.
I think this is a fun kids mystery series. My complaints with the series: 1) Xena and Xander are very similar names, so when read quickly, I often confuse the two. 2) These books pretend that Sherlock Holmes was a real person and never explain that he was a fictional character. 3) The adults are stereotypical and one-dimensional. The mom and dad are typically portrayed as controllers - people who are telling the kids they can't take the Tube at night or making them do their homework before working on a case. Then at the end of every story, mom and dad praise their kids for solving the case even if it meant the kids bent some rules to do so.
I think this is a fun kids mystery series. My complaints with the series: 1) Xena and Xander are very similar names, so when read quickly, I often confuse the two. 2) These books pretend that Sherlock Holmes was a real person and never explain that he was a fictional character. 3) The adults are stereotypical and one-dimensional. The mom and dad are typically portrayed as controllers - people who are telling the kids they can't take the Tube at night or making them do their homework before working on a case. Then at the end of every story, mom and dad praise their kids for solving the case even if it meant the kids bent some rules to do so.
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