Sally Murphy (text), Celeste Hulme (illus.), Ring of Truth (Sage Cookson #2), New Frontier Publishing, 1 Sept 2016, 56pp., $9.99 (pbk), ISBN: 9781925059748
This is the second book in the Sage Cookson series, a set of 4 books about Sage Cookson, a 10 year old girl whose parents are television chefs. Each book has a mystery at its heart for Sage to solve as she travels across Australia with her parents to film episodes of their show, The Cooksons Cook On. In Ring of Truth the Cooksons are filming at a bakery on Harmon Island when one of the owners loses a ring that has enormous sentimental value since it was designed by her husband, who recently passed away. Eager to help, Sage searches for the ring outside, thinking it might have fallen out the window, until the baker finds her and accuses her of stealing it. By the conclusion of the book, the ring is recovered, in an unusual location, Sage’s name is cleared, and the baker has apologised for her unjust accusation.
Although Sage travels a lot with her parents, the emphasis in the book is not on travel or exploring Australian locales – these only get brief descriptions. Instead, the focus is on food and cooking as the background for the book’s mystery. The action in Ring of Truth is located in a bakery, so there are lots of descriptions of pies, doughnuts and other pastries, as well as baking and cooking. Given children of all ages have caught the Masterchef bug and watch the various reality TV cooking shows with their parents, these books are well timed to meet that interest. There is a recipe for beef and mushroom pies included in the back of this book and the bright, simple website to accompany the series has more recipes and craft activities.
The book is targeted at readers 7+ and overall it would be a manageable read for this age group. The chapters are brief, with a pencil sketch at the beginning of each one (usually food related) and generally the writing is simple, although the switch between present, past and past perfect several times within the space of a few paragraph in the first chapter might be confusing for less confident readers. The book deals with the issue of grief in an empathetic, straightforward way, although at times Sage’s voice comes across as a lot older and more formal than your average 10 year old, for example she says “I note the word ‘was’ and wonder if perhaps her husband has died.” Sage is a thoughtful, persistent and vibrant young woman with an interesting lifestyle – a character sure to appeal.
Teacher’s Notes are available on the New Frontier website.
Reviewed by Rachel Le Rossignol
