I just finished reading this book
Here’s a quick description for you:
It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.
For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”
I have to say, as I was first reading the book, I was pretty excited about it. As I got into it, though, I was bored and kind of hoping it would end soon. (Great way to motivate you to read it, huh?!) But once I finished the book and was able to see the book in its entirety, I actually enjoyed it. Or maybe just appreciated it a little more.
I found the main character (an 11 year old girl) a bit hard to take seriously. She had an astounding vocabulary which just wasn’t believable. I don’t know how I would have felt if the author had dumbed it down, but it was just hard to take her very seriously because it didn’t seem like things an 11 year would ever say; even a very intelligent one.
I don’t think I’ll be rushing out any time soon to read the other books in the series, but it was a cute twist on a mystery novel and a lighter read than some we have read for book club. I think a young teen would enjoy the book, though. They may not understand some of the vocabulary, but there wasn’t anything in it that a younger reading wouldn’t be able to handle.
So, this might not be for you, but if you know of a young reader looking for a fun read, this just may be for them!
