about the book
The Saint Etheldreda’s School for Young Ladies is not the most prestigious Victorian boarding academy. The stern headmistress, Mrs. Plackett, is a judgmental penny-pincher and her surly brother, Mr. Godding, is worse. There are just seven students: Dear Roberta, Disgraceful Mary Jane, Dull Martha, Stout Alice, Smooth Kitty, Pocked Louise, and Dour Elinor. The girls find the finishing school’s strict routine wearily tedious, but enjoy each other’s company tremendously.
One evening, the girls eat their sad Sunday dinner. While the Headmistress and her bother dine in glutinous elegance in the dining room, the two drop dead-poisoned!
The school will most certainly close and the girls will be sent home. But they don’t want to be separated and go home, so the seven decide it would be jolly good fun to keep the deaths a secret and bury the bodies in the back garden. Once the bodies are finally safely disposed of, the girls get another nasty surprise. Mrs. Plackett planned a surprise birthday party for Mr. Godding! The girls scramble to keep the guests distracted, and Stout Alice dons theatrical makeup so she can take on the headmistresses’ personae and claim to be sick in bed.
During the following months, the girls maintain the charade while juggling ever-growing fabrications, digging dogs, and mounting debts. Of course, busybody neighbors, annoying villagers, potential suitors, and a suspicious housekeeper all show up at the worst possible times. Still the girls manage pretty well. Smooth Kitty is a natural leader; Stout Alice continues to play the part of the ailing headmistress; and Disgraceful Mary Jane, a natural flirt, greatly enjoys keeping visitors distracted.
Dour Elinor takes on the responsibility of getting to the bottom of the murders. She has an unnatural scientific interest in death. Along with the other girls, each of whom has an exceptional talent related to their nickname, the sisterhood continues their shenanigans as they look for the real killer. Will they discover the poisoner—or will all seven girls end up in jail—or worse?
about the author
Julie Berry grew up in heaven—and heaven was a ramshackle house on fifty acres of farmland in Western New York. Her home was complete with six older siblings, and was shared with chickens, pigs, rabbits, dogs, and cats, as well as a pond full of frogs, turtles, and crawdads. And to top it all off, a woods full of adventures.
The day before she graduated with a degree in communications from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Julie married her husband Phil. Life has always been a bit hectic: she helped Phil through school and started a business while raising four boys. She is also director of marketing for a data collection software company, leads a church choir, and writes a humorous column on living with kids for a local newspaper.
Coping with the demanding care of a child with special needs, Julie looked for an outlet. Since her life wasn’t quite chaotic enough, she decided to go back to school! At Vermont College, she got an MFA in writing for children and young adults.
Her books won rave reviews. Her novel, The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place, is a murder mystery set in a very different type of Victorian finishing school and features seven very unusual young ladies. Julie never attended a boarding school and her manners have a tendency to be on the improper side. But she is part of a sisterhood; she is the youngest of seven children, six of which were her sisters. Julie says if they ever had a chance to conceal a corpse and hide the fact that there wasn’t a single responsible adult running their school, they’d do it in a heartbeat!
Julie’s house is in Maynard, Massachusetts, and is the one that is cleaned by four curious, very clever boys!
Sources:
Author website
Author biography: Macmillan
Author interview: School Library Journal
Author interview: Hypable
Also by Julie Berry:
The Passion of Dolssa. Viking Juvenile. April 2016.
Secondhand Charm. Bloomsbury USA Children’s. 2010.
The Amaranth Enchantment. Bloomsbury USA Children’s. 2009.
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The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
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