What a find! Wahoo! My friend Sue (whom I met in our Courage to Teach cohort) recommended this book to me, and it was better than I expected. From the first paragraph I was totally delighted and captivated by Flavia de Luce, the 11-year old heroine of the story.
I love mysteries. I love smart characters. I love England as a setting and 1950 as a time period. It has a dark humor that is just hilarious. It's seldom that I laugh out loud, but I did in this story. Yes, all of these are great qualitites, but even better are the intriguing characters. Flavia's father is a piece of work and their relationship is complicated...her sisters are entertaining as well. There isn't a shallow or flat character in the entire book!
I have lent this book to Sierra and my friend Gail. Both of them loved it! And these two have very diverse ages and tastes, so it's obvious this book has wide appeal. This mystery revolves around stamps and so you learn a lot about the history of certain English stamps. The other learning opportunity in this book is chemistry, of all things! Flavia is passionate about chemistry, and shares her ideas and thinking and connections about it throughout the book. I have recommended this book to high school Chemistry teachers and I hope one of them someday takes my suggestion! Reading an excerpt would be a great way to introduce or deepen a chemistry unit.
Having loved this first book in what is planned to be a series, I could barely wait to get my hands on the second!
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