Bradley, Alan. (2010) The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag. (The Flavia de Luce Series) Bantam, division of Random House. ISBN 978-0385343459. Litland recommends ages 14-100!
Publisher’s description: Flavia de Luce, a dangerously smart eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders, thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey are over—until beloved puppeteer Rupert Porson has his own strings sizzled in an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. But who’d do such a thing, and why? Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she’s letting on? What about Porson’s charming but erratic assistant? All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can’t solve—without Flavia’s help. But in getting so close to who’s secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head? (Bantam Books)
Our thoughts:
Flavia De Luce is back and in full force! Still precocious. Still brilliant. Still holding an unfortunate fascination with poisons…
As with the first book of the series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, we begin with a seemingly urgent, if not sheer emergency, situation that once again turns out to be Flavia’s form of play. We also see the depth of her sister’s cruelty as they emotionally badger their little sister, and Flavia’s immediate plan for the most cruel of poisoned deaths as revenge. Readers will find themselves chuckling throughout the book!
And while the family does not present the best of role models (smile), our little heroine does demonstrate good character here and there as she progresses through this adventure. As explained in my first review on this series, the protagonist may be 11 but that doesn’t mean the book was written for 11-year olds :>) For readers who are parents, however (myself included), we shudder to wonder what might have happened if we had bought that chemistry kit for our own kids!
Alas, the story has much more to it than mere chemistry. The author’s writing style is incredibly rich and entertaining, with too many amusing moments to even give example of here. From page 1 the reader is engaged and intrigued, and our imagination is easily transported into the 1950’s Post WWII England village. In this edition of the series, we have more perspective of Flavia as filled in by what the neighbors know and think of her. Quite the manipulative character as she flits around Bishop’s Lacy on her mother’s old bike, Flavia may think she goes unnoticed but begins to learn not all are fooled…
The interesting treatment of perceptions around German prisoners of war from WWII add historical perspective, and Flavia’s critical view of villagers, such as the Vicar’s mean wife and their sad relationship, fill in character profiles with deep colors. Coupled with her attention to detail that helps her unveil the little white lies told by antagonists, not a word is wasted in this story.
I admit to being enviou
Isn't that the saying for the month of March? Seems like it should be, up here. It's been snowing on and off all day. But yesterday all the high school kids were out in shorts, running for the track team. "Spring" is a relative term, I guess.
I've been away in lovely North Carolina. We visited friends and basically enjoyed ourselves for a full week. And before that, had my mother-in-law up for a visit. Lesson learned: give yourself a day or two between having guests visit you and leaving to go be a guest yourself. All those little things like laundry and packing and eating up all the perishable food can be a real pain when you're trying to entertain. (Even though my mother-in-law is about as easy-going as anyone I've ever met...she was a good sport about all of it.)
We visited the Davidson, NC library. Very cute. Little. Beautifully windowed, light and airy. Nestled in the middle of the town green, right across from a hipster coffee shop and a soda fountain that is vintage 1950's Americana, it's now a branch of the Charlotte and Mecklenburg County system. Very cool. Everyone in Davidson was watching the NCAA Tournament, it seems. That or waiting for the Easter bunny.
On an unrelated note--I saw that there's a company doing a road show for their downloadable audiobooks. It sounds like they're basically tricking out a big truck and driving around to cities, to help make sure people know how to use the online resources the libraries have purchased for their communities. This is a great idea! The library gets some free publicity about how up-to-date they are, users gain a better understanding of the new technology, and staff can basically enjoy the circus (or so it sounds...). Someone in one of those cities, you'll have to let us know how it goes! (OR someone get the scoop at PLA.)
Speaking of PLA...did anyone see John Wood? Was he as awesome as I would expect?
The school year of 1978-1979 was a defining time for me. I was in second grade at a school that no longer exists in Newhall, West Virginia. Corporal punishment in the schools hadn't yet been outlawed in West Virginia, and wouldn't be until 1994. I had a teacher who was particularly liberal with her use of the ping-pong paddle, and would sometimes hold sessions where she'd tell us to tattle on
Today's Poetry Monday Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect is an acrostic. An acrostic is a poem in which the first letter of the lines, read downwards, form a word. I had a friend in high school who wrote two acrostics using my full four names. He had romantic feelings for me, and I wish I could have returned them, but I didn't. He knew that we would always be "just friends," and he was respectfully appreciative without encroaching upon my space. I still cringe when I remember that he asked me what I wanted for my birthday, and I snapped, "A scale that works!" because I was so frustrated with my weight. When my birthday arrived, he brought a bathroom scale to the art room where I had my first class of the day. I was mortified. I wish now that I had just realized how silly I was, accepted the bathroom scale with grace, and made a mental note that I had a friend who cared about me so much that he would give me what I had literally asked for. This acrostic is dedicated to that boy:
Regrets, I have regrets. Not of things I did but
Unkind thoughts and thoughtless words
Expectations too full-blown to carry any weight
Fretting by the mirror, stomping on the scale
Unwilling to pause, breathe, and move into grace.
Long ago they were, yet not so far behind.
On a lighter note, tomorrow is the premiere of Spinning Wheel, my new children's performer series. I will be interviewing Eric Herman, a children's musician who also blogs Cool Tunes for Kids.
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Man. A few years and a bunch of states apart, we had the same first grade. We were supposed to put our heads down, and I was daydreaming and fiddling in my desk, so Mrs. R. pulled my hair and pulled my head out of my desk and pushed my face down. It was fairly gently? But I told my mother that the teacher had pulled my hair. Because she had.
Oh, yes, the system can be hard.
I heard a lot of stories on the radio, too, but it was a SF station that played the audio Sesame Street -- which was something I thought my Mom just rigged up with foil on the radio antennae. I had NO idea they actually broadcast that, and I always felt like I was getting away with something.
Good thing our moms had radios!
TadMack: Isn't it interesting how events with strong emotions attached to them stay with us as vividly as when they first happened? (Though, as my update indicates, I melded two different events together.)
I didn't know they did Sesame Street as audio, either. I'm glad the radio station did that.
I think corporal punishment was still in force when my parents started teaching. They hated using it as a punishment, but when they didn't, parents actually COMPLAINED. Can you imagine complaining because your child's teacher DIDN'T spank your child?
When my father was in school, he had a totally unhinged teacher who smacked him so hard once that he fell out of his seat. Why? Because the boy behind him had been talking.
Praire Home Companion was my savior when I was small and afraid of the dark. :)
You have such a great memory for details! I tend to mush lots of things together in my memories, and there are certain years I probably couldn't tell you a thing about.
I *do* remember the nuns having a thing for violence as a kid. I got hit over the head with a math book once in fourth grade by Sister James Marie for losing my math homework (that for me was the kicker; I'd actually done the bloody assignment but I just couldn't find it!)
Mysteries were always the escape for me, starting with Nancy Drew before quickly graduating to my mom's Agatha Christie collection. Even as an eight-year-old, I loved the idea that there was a correct answer to every problem, if you could just correctly interpret the facts.
My second grade nun was very nice, but my third grade nun was a terror. Mainly in the emotional sense, though. They did get corporal on us, but not extremely often and never to me. I was very well-behaved until about 7th grade and then they were so shocked at my pent-up bile that they didn't know how to respond. My mom used to offer to send me to other schools, but for some reason, I didn't want to switch. except for that one nun, I did feel loved by the nuns, although I was really scared of them and mad at them, too.
I've been thinking about this story (these stories) all day. I was in second grade the same year, but I had a completely different school experience. I didn't like Wind in the Willows either, though I'm glad you had it and other books to keep you company that hard year.
That's a great story. My teachers weren't so mean, but I could have used that when I was little. I mean, who couldn't?
Blogapotamus: I can't understand it. I can see parents wanting other people's children to get thwacked.... I'm glad you had Prairie Home Companion.
Goddess: Was there any follow-up by parents, or was it just 'one of those things?' Being punished unjustly is one of the worst things for a child. You definitely don't forget it, and it brings to light the larger injustices of the world. I never delved into mysteries, but I can certainly understand loving the poetry of things fitting together.
LSM: I'm glad you had a good experience with nuns in the school. Yeah, pent-up bile coming from a young teenage girl who used to be sweetness and light-- that sounds familiar.
Anamaria: I really think Wind in the Willows is not a children's book, but rather a book for grownups that children can like, either in parts or as a whole. It's a book with a wide emotional landscape that doesn't follow a strict linear narrative. After Toad gets thrown into prison, the other animals go on for several chapters before returning to Toad. That just doesn't happen in children's books!
Jules: I'm always glad to hear of teachers who "weren't so mean" and even really good ones. I had a number of good ones, but the dramatic is what makes for stories, you know? I still remember my Algebra teacher fondly, and I did terribly in Algebra. And yes, we all can use good stories.
I really appreciate reading all your comments. Please continue to leave them as you feel inspired.