THE PERILS OF PEPPERMINTS

Emily Luccock has briefly recovered from her trials at Sugar Hill Hall, but her pluck and quick thinking are once again called for. Aunt Twice is pregnant, and Uncle Twice has a business opportunity in India, so Emily needs to attend boarding school while they’re abroad. She’s dispatched, upon the advice of Mr. Slyde, to an excellent school: Mrs. Spilking’s Select Academy for Young Ladies. All the delicious gothic details are here: the evil headmistress with her vicious dog, the screeching cook, the gruel, and the horrid cupboard where our young orphan heroine is sent for punishment. All is not as it seems and it is the delightful task of the reader—and Emily—to sort out the details. Emily has learned a lot from her stay with Mrs. Meeching and Miss Plumly in the first volume and she will need to use all her wiles to get out of this predicament. Though this tale stands on its own, it will likely send readers back to the first volume for further elucidation and adventure. Good fun. (Fiction. 8-12)