The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-4

Reading Check

1. What branch of science is Flavia interested in?

2. What is the name of the de Luce family’s gardener and handyperson?

3. What modern convenience does Flavia’s father dislike so much that he rarely allows anyone to use it?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do the de Luce girls have so little parental nurturing?

2. When Flavia passes through the kitchen in the middle of the night, what does she notice is missing, and why does this strike her as strange?

3. What topic is Mrs. Mullet discussing when Mr. de Luce faints?

Paired Resource

“How to Fund a British Stately Home in the 21st Century”

• This CNN article discusses the fate of many English country homes as modern times impact the British class system that once kept these mansions operating.
• This resource relates to the themes of How the Past Affects the Present and Social Class and Interpersonal Relationships.
• What does the setting of Buckshaw convey about the de Luce family? What does it convey about the British class system in the 1950s? How might the financial pressures this house represents interact with Colonel de Luce’s grief over Harriet? How much insight does Flavia have into her father’s withdrawal from family life? How much does she seem to understand about what Buckshaw represents?

CHAPTERS 5-9

Reading Check

1. What word does Mr. Twining allegedly shout before falling from the clock tower?

2. What item from the inn in Bishop’s Lacey does Flavia ask Mary to fetch for her?

3. What does Flavia accidentally leave at the inn?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Flavia go to the library in Bishop’s Lacey?

2. Why does Miss Mountjoy blame the boys in the stamp club for her uncle’s death?

3. What does Flavia deduce from the pastry crust and the feather in the wastebasket at the inn?

Paired Resource

“Child Prodigies: Cute, Clever, and Cognitively Connected”

• This article summarizes recent research into the minds of children classified as prodigies.
• This resource relates to the theme of The Precocious Child Detective.
•  In what ways is Flavia typical of precocious children? Does she show any compensatory weaknesses due to her superior abilities in chemistry and logical reasoning? How does she demonstrate the kind of individualism and drive typical of prodigies? How does her precocity impact the reader’s judgment of her reliability as a narrator?

CHAPTERS 10-12

Reading Check

1. Who rushes out of St. Tancred’s when the vicar begins praying for the dead man?

2. What piece of information does Flavia hope to get from Miss Cool?

3. Whom do the police arrest on Sunday?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. While she is in the garden after church, thinking about the lack of commotion when the man must have been murdered, what does Flavia realize about the probable method of the man’s murder?

2. What information does Flavia learn about the dead man from Miss Mountjoy during her Sunday afternoon visit?

3. How do the descriptions of Colonel de Luce’s bedroom and Harriet’s dressing room reinforce the idea that he is mired in grief over his wife’s death?

Paired Resource

“Prolonged Grief Disorder” and “Grief and Bereavement: What Psychiatrists Need to Know”

• The first resource is an American Psychiatric Association article about prolonged grief; the second is a journal article from World Psychiatry explaining the typical variations in “uncomplicated” grief.
• This resource relates to the theme of Grief’s Effect on Families.
• What impact does Harriet’s death still have on her family? How long ago was her death? Based on the two articles, would you say that any of the de Luces are struggling with prolonged grief disorder, or is their grief within the boundaries of more usual ways of dealing with the loss of a loved one?

CHAPTERS 13-17

Reading Check

1. What does Inspector Hewitt tell Flavia he is risking his career to allow her to do?

2. What is “The Resurrection of Tchang Fu”?

3. What does Flavia learn about her father’s finances during her conversation with him in jail?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Flavia tell Inspector Hewitt in an attempt to clear her father’s name?

2. During Flavia’s conversation with her father at the jail, what is implied by Colonel de Luce’s question about whether Dogger heard his argument with Bonepenny?

3. During Flavia’s conversation with her father at the jail, what does she realize about the stamps in her pocket?

Paired Resource

“Friends”

• This brief Bernhart Paul Holst poem extols the value of loyalty to one’s friends.
• This resource relates to the theme of Loyalty.
• What does the speaker say is the value of loyalty to a friend? Do you think Dogger sees friendship and loyalty similarly? Why? Why do you think Colonel de Luce does not fight harder to prove his innocence? Whom does he suspect of killing Bonepenny, and why? What motivates Flavia to confess to the murder? How does her motivation underscore that Flavia is like her father in some ways?

CHAPTERS 18-22

Reading Check

1. What does Flavia find under the loose tile in the clock tower?

2. Who unexpectedly shows up at Buckshaw the morning after Flavia’s trip to Greyminster?

3. What is Rook’s End?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. While at Greyminster, what does Flavia realize about her conversation with her father at the jail?

2. What thoughts does listening to the Mikado inspire in Flavia?

3. What realization does Flavia have after looking at the photo of her father, Bonepenny, and Stanley?

CHAPTERS 23-27

Reading Check

1. When she is locked in the Pit Shed, which play does Flavia dream of her family performing?

2. Although Flavia found insulin in Bonepenny’s room, what important related item does she realize is missing?

3. To whom does Flavia ultimately return the AA stamp?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does the precious stamp end up in Flavia’s mouth?

2. According to the novel, what are the uses of carbon tetrachloride, the chemical Flavia smells from Bonepenny’s mouth?

3. How is Flavia rescued from Pemberton?

Recommended Next Reads

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley

• This second installment of the Flavia de Luce series follows Flavia as she solves the murder of local puppeteer Rupert Porson by deducing its relationship to a suspicious death years earlier.
• Shared themes include Grief’s Effect on Families, The Precocious Child Detective, How the Past Affects the Present, Social Class and Interpersonal Relationships, and Loyalty.
• Shared topics include strong female protagonists, science, cozy mystery, murder, suspense, adventure, historical fiction, English countryside life, and families.

Maisie Dobbs by Jaqueline Winspear

• In this murder mystery set in Post-WWII England, psychologist and investigator Maisie Dobbs must revisit the trauma of the war as she rushes to solve a mystery and prevent further violence.
• Shared themes include Grief, How the Past Affects the Present, and Social Class and Interpersonal Relationships.
• Shared topics include strong female protagonists, mystery, murder, suspense, adventure, historical fiction, and English life.
• Maisie Dobbs on SuperSummary