Happy birthday, Charles Dickens!

English novelist Charles Dickens was born February 7, 1812, in what is now Portsmouth, England.

Facts about Dickens...

• He was one of eight children in a family that struggled with financial issues, and his father eventually ended up in debtor's prison. 
• By the time Dickens was a teenager he was already working in the law courts as a freelance reporter and stenographer. 
• At the age of 20 he worked as a news reporter and then began submitting sketches to various publications; this work was later published as Sketches by Boz. 
• Dickens was also quite popular in the United States and went on a lecture tour in 1842.  
• He had ten children with his wife Catherine (he separated from his wife in 1858).
• His public readings of his novels were very popular.
• Dickens died of a stroke on June 9, 1870.
• Thinking about visiting London? Visit the Charles Dickens Museum!

Books by Dickens:

• Nicholas Nickleby
• The Old Curiosity Shop
• Oliver Twist
• A Christmas Carol
• David Copperfield
• Bleak House
• Little Dorrit
• A Tale of Two Cities
• Great Expectations

One of my favorite books, and one that I continue to go back to re-read, is Great Expectations. I love Dickens' manner of telling a story and how he writes his characters. Have you read anything by Charles Dickens? What do you think of his writing?

Flavia du Luce is a worthy successor to Miss Marple

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Brady

Eleven-year-old Flavvia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, must exonerate her father of murder. Armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together and examine new suspects, she begins a search that will lead her all to the King of England himself. 
Find it in the catalog!

Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag

Flavia de Luce , a dangerously brilliant evelen-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders, sets out to solve the murder of a beloved puppeteer. All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can't solve-without Flavia's help.
Find it in the catalog!