SuitabookThe Lizzie and Belle Mysteries
J.T. Williams
- Reading
- Read alongside the child if the theatre danger or historical material feels intense. Pause to distinguish Georgian social circumstances from the girls’ choices, then leave time to discuss the cliff-hanger.
- Themes
- Friendship across different circumstances: Lizzie lives in her father’s tea shop, while Dido Belle is an heiress living with relatives at Kenwood House; they work together on the mystery. The story presents cooperation as necessary to solving the mystery, and the girls repair a disagreement.
- Black history in an adventure mystery: The story places Black characters in Georgian England and draws on real-life abolitionists and activists; the slave trade is described as a major theme. Historical material is woven into a mystery involving Lizzie’s family and her father’s performance at the theatre.
- Trust, suspicion and perspective: Lizzie narrates in the first person, while she and Belle follow a trail involving an apparent crime and multiple suspects. The mystery encourages readers to question whom to trust, while Lizzie’s narration foregrounds her own feelings and assumptions.
- Worth knowing
- The central incident is dangerous and suspenseful: a chandelier crashes onto Lizzie’s father, with an apparent perpetrator and several suspects. The historical treatment includes the slave trade and Black lives in Georgian England.