Random Musings of a Bibliophile

I love murder mysteries and boarding school stories. Murder is Bad Manners  by Robin Stevens delivers brilliantly on both. It is the 1930s and Deepdean School is a place where wealthy young ladies are sent for education and betterment. Hazel Wong is one such young lady. She is from Hong Kong, and her father sent her to England to be schooled because of his own enjoyable school boy day there. Soon after her arrival, Hazel is befriended by Daisy Wells the daughter of an English Lord. These two girls make up their own secret detective agency after Daisy spends a summer immersing herself in Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christy, and Dorothy Sayers. The girls content themselves with minor mysteries until one night Hazel stumbles on the dead body of their Science Mistress, Miss Bell. The body disappears mere minutes later. Now the girls have a murder to investigate with no body, multiple suspects, and few clues. In the days that follow, the girls uncover more secrets about their school and t...

Here are some shorter musings on recent reads First Class Murder  by Robin Stevens This delightful series continues to make me smile. Hazel is coming in to her own so nicely and I can't wait to see how that affects her relationship with Daisy. I can already see more strain starting to develop. I hope that it eventually leads to more growth on Daisy's part. Meanwhile, I love the callbacks to classic mysteries and was delighted to see my two favorites from book two make cameos. Alexander was a great secondary character addition in this as well. I can not wait for the US to catch up to where the series is in the UK! If you haven't experienced these wonderful MG books and are a fan of old fashioned mystery stories, start with Murder is Bad Manners . The Daybreak Bond  by Megan Frazer Blakemore This is an enjoyable sequel to last year's [book:The Firefly Code|26073153]. It answers a lot of questions brought up in the first book and has the continued adventure of the Fi...

This is next week's Top Ten Tuesday topic, but it inspired me to do a bigger one. I haven't made one in a couple of years and so will feature books published in the past several years but the categories are inspired by my favorites from this year. I've added a "tried and true" recommendation for each category that is a bit older. These are books I've recommended over and over with success. I by no means intend to be reductive with the categories. No child fits just one and the books could all straddle several as well. It is just meant to be a guide. Links are to my reviews. Feel free to comment, email, or tweet at me if you have questions about any particular book. I will post a YA one tomorrow! For MG Readers (ages about 9 to about 12) For the Introspective Kid Some Kind of Happiness  by Claire Legrand (realistic fiction; 2016) The Firefly Code  by Megan Frazer Blakemore (science fiction; 2016) Tried and True Rec: The Wednesday Wars   by ...