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POISON IS NOT POLITE

Name: POISON IS NOT POLITE
Author: Robin Stevens
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2215-4

From the Wells & Wong Mystery series , Vol. 2

by Robin Stevens ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 26, 2016

A first-rate whodunit, reminiscent of a game of Clue and terrific preparation for the works of Agatha Christie.

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Wells and Wong return in a classic country-estate mystery.

Spending their April break at Fallingford, Daisy’s stately (but run-down) family home, schoolgirls Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong become detectives again when an unpleasant friend of Daisy’s mother is murdered there. Mr. Curtis is a stranger, ostensibly invited for Daisy’s 14th birthday party. He’s clearly more interested in the family’s valuable antiques, and Daisy’s mother, Lady Hastings, is inappropriately interested in him. When he’s fatally poisoned after drinking his tea, many people have motives, but the girls (and two school friends invited for the occasion) quickly narrow the list. All their potential suspects are members of Daisy’s own family. This is difficult for the president of the Detective Society, but she continues to gamely direct its proceedings. Hazel serves as scribe and narrator. Besides recording their activities, she supplies her own observations, including comparisons of her wealthy Chinese family’s home in Hong Kong with this shabbier one, and her feelings about looking and being different from Daisy and her white family. Published in England in 2015 as Arsenic for Tea, this well-crafted and entertaining detective story, a stand-alone sequel to Murder Is Bad Manners (2014), is solidly set in a fading world of 1930s minor nobility and supported by a cast list and map.

A first-rate whodunit, reminiscent of a game of Clue and terrific preparation for the works of Agatha Christie. (Historical mystery. 10-14)

Pub Date: April 26, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4814-2215-4

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S MYSTERY & THRILLER | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES | CHILDREN'S HISTORICAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
ONCE UPON A CRIME
by Robin Stevens

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CREAM BUNS AND CRIME
by Robin Stevens

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THE GUGGENHEIM MYSTERY
by Robin Stevens

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THE SEVENTH MOST IMPORTANT THING

by Shelley Pearsall ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 8, 2015

Luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates. (Historical fiction. 10-14)

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Traumatized by his father’s recent death, a boy throws a brick at an old man who collects junk in his neighborhood and winds up on probation working for him.

Pearsall bases the book on a famed real work of folk art, the Throne of the Third Heaven, by James Hampton, a janitor who built his work in a garage in Washington, D.C., from bits of light bulbs, foil, mirrors, wood, bottles, coffee cans, and cardboard—the titular seven most important things. In late 1963, 13-year-old Arthur finds himself looking for junk for Mr. Hampton, who needs help with his artistic masterpiece, begun during World War II. The book focuses on redemption rather than art, as Hampton forgives the fictional Arthur for his crime, getting the boy to participate in his work at first reluctantly, later with love. Arthur struggles with his anger over his father’s death and his mother’s new boyfriend. Readers watch as Arthur transfers much of his love for his father to Mr. Hampton and accepts responsibility for saving the art when it becomes endangered. Written in a homespun style that reflects the simple components of the artwork, the story guides readers along with Arthur to an understanding of the most important things in life.

Luminescent, just like the artwork it celebrates. (Historical fiction. 10-14)