ISBN: 978-0-385-34230-8
Pages: 373
I heard about this book on NPR the other day as I was driving into work. I've heard about a lot of different books on NPR and I always say "I'm going to get that one and read it." Well this time I actually did. In fact I read the entire book in about two days.
The book takes place in 1950. The main character is an 11 year old chemistry wiz named Flavia de Luce. Flavia takes after one of her great uncles who was also a chemistry wiz The difference being her main interest is in poisons. The Buckshaw estate were Favia, her two older sisters and father live has seen better days. Then thing get real exciting when a dead bird is found on the back steps with a stamp pinned to its beak. Flavia's father is somewhat of a recluse but he loves to collect stamps. This bird and stamp seems to be some sort of a warning. Early the next morning, Flavia discovers a man dying in the back garden and as she watches, he takes his last breathe.
The police think her father is the murderer and soon he is arrested for the crime. At this point, Flavia decides that she will prove he is innocent and with the help of her chemestry, some sluething and a lot of good luck she sets out to do just that. Along the way she laces her sister's lipstick with an extract from the poision ivy plant because her sister was teasing her.
This is Alan Bradley's first novel and with it he has won the Dagger Award. I enjoyed reading this book. With the exception of a little kidnapping and the murder in the garden, there is none of the graphic violence that is currently on TV. Once into it, it held my attention and captured my imagination. I like a book that will take me away from the daily grind. One that will let me use my imagination to see the setting and the characters. Finally, I found this book very easy to read. There were not a lot of big words, or sentence structures that were confusing. I would have no qualms about giving this book to a teen or preteen reader.
0 comments:
Post a Comment