book cover

Secrets of the Snakestone

by Piu DasGupta

Interest age: 9 to 11
Reading age: 9+

Published by Nosy Crow, 2024

  • Adventure
  • Around the world
  • Coming-of-age
  • Historical

About this book

It’s been months since Zélie heard from her father in India. She’s been working as a lady’s maid in Paris for a year and a half now and she hates it. Because she looks different to most other Parisians, people call her a witch. She’s not really sure why Baba sent her here in the first place and all she wants to do is go home. 

Meanwhile, Jules, dirty and smelly because he works in the network of sewers beneath the Parisian streets, finds a strange golden locket beneath the grand house where Zélie works.  

When Zélie sees the locket, she recognises it as her father’s. But how did it get to Paris? And where is Baba now? There’s only one way to find out, she must follow Jules into the sewers. 

This intriguing mystery adventure combines experiences of Paris in the late 1800s with the myth and folklore of India.   

As the children try to navigate a world of deceitful, self-serving adults, they discover crime and injustice at every turn – and just a sprinkling of ancient magic. 

Excitement, danger, a complex plot and evocative descriptions will keep a range of readers captivated from the first page to the last. 

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