jbojkov 's review for:

Murder Is Bad Manners by Robin Stevens

4.0

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I liked this historical mystery based around the duo of Daisy Wells and Hazel Wong. The girls have good chemistry and are depicted as smart and spunky. However between the various love triangles occurring between the teachers (both sexes), the canoodling among the students at the all-female boarding school, and the mention of concubines, I think this is a book for middle school kids. The problem? The cover is definitely for elementary kids. Not sure I could get a MS patron to read it. One other thing that bothered me is that I feel like the depiction of Hazel (she's from Hong Kong) is questionable. At one point she refers to herself as "Oriental"- is that a use of a term that would have been common in the 1930s or just a clumsy attempt to point out the difference between Hazel and her school mates. I'm not sure...