Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley - 3.5 stars

[Shelly]

I enjoyed this book, but it was not a big hit for me. As much as I enjoyed Flavia, it was a tad too unplausible. An 11 year old girl with a passion for chemistry and poisons who solves a murder mystery! But putting the storyline aside, I appreciated this view into the life of a gifted child. One moment, she is brilliant as she travels around on her bicycle in search of clues, and then 5 minutes later, is just a lonely child who misses her mother. Her interactions with her sisters were also insightful. But most of all I enjoyed her interactions with Dogger, and how she understood him without knowing his story. So 3.5 stars rounded up to 4.