Book Review: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

We’ve got a lovely bit of a British story (written by a Canadian) next up in Book Review Week…

Book Review For: Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
By Alan Bradley

There is something about an 11-year-old heroine who is charmingly British that caused me to fall in love with this book.

Flavia, an 11-year-old with a frightening passion for chemistry and all things poison-related, stumbles upon a dying man in her family’s cucumber patch. Instead of fainting or running off screaming, she gets involved in solving the mystery not only of whom this odd stranger was, but also who killed him.

Flavia is a bit of a loner gal with no mother and a father who has his head in postage stamps. (Wow, can we say geek? That’s even geekier than me!) She has two older sisters, but they take turns ganging up on each other in most unusual and inventive ways. I dare say those bloody British kids are bloomin’ brilliant. When her father is arrested for the murder of the man left in the cucumber patch, Flavia gives her sisters reprieve from her tortures and jumps on her bike to track down clues faster than the billies can say “Steady on.”

There are more promised in this series and dare say this ol’ gal will read them.

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Book Review: The Girls

Here we go… book three in book review week.

Book Review For: The Girls
By: Lori Larsens

The Girls are conjoined twins, Ruby and Rose, who grow up in Southern Ontario. The book is written from their perspective–they each take turns writing chapters about their history and what is going on in their lives right now. I’m not going to tell you too much about this one as it will totally spoil the book for you as it has some unique twists, turns, and elements that are a nice surprise for the unsuspecting reader.

The author must have done a fair amount of research as well as immersed herself in what the everyday difficulties must be for two such characters. While the odd spot dragged a bit, it is more than made up for in the way she conquers the mundane and how she gives unique voice for these two characters.

Love? Children? Work? Family? Strangers? Transportation? Education? It’s all shown and conquered by Larsens. (I’m totally not doing this book justice, however if I tell you more I will spoil it all!)