The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley

ISBN: 9780385343497
New York:  Delacorte Press, 2009

Plot - Eleven year old budding chemist and poison expert, Flavia DeLuce, lives with her older sisters,  and their father in a falling-down estate called Buckshaw near the small English hamlet of Bishop's Lacey.  Her sisters, Daphne who is 13 and Ophelia who is 17, are interested in anything but their younger sibling and are often the recipients of Flavia's chemistry experiments, infuriating them and delighting Flavia.  Their mother has died and although there is a part-time house maid and cook, Flavia is mostly on her own, as her father spends the majority of his time with his stamp collection.  When Flavia suddenly witnesses the dying word of a red-headed man in her father's cucumber patch, a red-headed man that she and her mentor, Dogger, the family's long time gardener, had overheard arguing with her father mere hours before, though, the adventure truly begins.  Her father is charged with the crime based on damning circumstantial evidence, but during a visit with his youngest daughter while in jail he reveals details of his past life and that of the dead man's that prove his innocence to Flavia.  She scours the village on her bicycle, named Gladys, and works her way through all parties involved, determined to untangle the mystery and save her father.

Critical Evaluation -This crossover novel, written for an adult audience but wonderful for young adults as well is a mystery that succeeds as much because of its characters as because of the intricate, constantly surprising plot twists.  Flavia herself narrates the tale, and Bradley does an amazing job of taking on the perspective of an 11 year old English girl in the 1950s. She is at once hilarious and brilliant.  But she's not the only one developed fully.  Flavia's family members, Dogger, Mrs. Mullet, and the police are rounded out to be entertaining and to make the reader wonder about their place in the story behind the murder.  The setting is portrayed well, though that is not the focus of the novel by any means.

Reader's annotation - Flavia's father is in jail for murdering a man she clearly heard him arguing loudly with just hours before he died in the family's cucumber patch.  Can the 11 year old wild child really solve the murder in time to save her father and bring the criminal to justice?

Information about the author - Writing his first book at the age of 70, Alan Bradley likens himself to the ancient Greek rhetor, Seneca, who said to save the passions of youth for later years when one can make better use of them.  Bradley worked in television production and only began writing seriously after he retired.  Flavia DeLuce came to him fully formed in personality and family history, reminding me of J.K. Rowling's statements that Harry Potter showed up to her also fully formed with a history and a future.  Perhaps a testament to how much this is a character-driven novel not focused on setting and place, when Bradley went to London to receive the Debut Dagger Award in 2007 for this book, it was his first trip to England. 
Genre - Mystery; Crossover Adult/YA
Curriculum Ties - None that stand out other than for a creative writing class studying character development
Booktalk ideas - 

1. Read a short bit from the end of what Flavia hears of the argument between the red-headed man and her father.  Begin on pg. 25 with "And we killed him" and end soon after on the same page, with "I was being held so tightly I couldn't manage a struggle."
2. When you were eleven were you free to roam about in your family's chemistry lab set up in the Victorian era and just waiting for interested parties to teach themselves about deadly poisons?  Well, if you had been, and if you had also witnessed your father, your otherwise very quiet father, arguing loudly with a man that soon turned up dead, would you sit idly by or would you solve the mystery before the police sewed up the case all nice a neat--and wrong?

Reading level - Intended for adults, but the writing is approachable for mystery buffs down to 15 years old.

Challenge issues - none apparent

Why I included this book - School Library Journal chose the sequel to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie as one of its 2011 Adult Books for Teens.  Sweetness is every bit as appropriate as a crossover mystery as well, and was given high praise by Library Journal.  I included it because it is so far off the beaten mystery path and so much fun.  The heroine may well remind YA readers of their own exploits, taken to extremes of course.