The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency
Apr. 19th, 2020 07:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jcfialaSo, I've been reading to my daughter most nights, like I usually do. Some nights we just both stay up way too late - last (Saturday) night for example - but most nights I get Rose ready for bed and settle her down and read to her, possibly while she's drawing. I'm not entirely sure what she's up to, as she's got this loft bed her mother got for her, and she's recently decided to transition to sleeping under it instead of over it.
Since I don't have to wake her up in the morning anymore, I don't mind.
Anyway, a while back she wanted me to read to her in the dark, which normally could be a problem except I've got a lot of ebooks on my tablet that I can read. Having finished up the last one, I hunted around for a book to read and rediscovered the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series by Jordan Stratford that I had hidden around in Dropbox. I happily loaded up the first book and started reading to my daughter, who likes them a lot.
The books are historical girl detective stories set in 1826, starring Ada Byron (aka Ada Lovelace), aged 11, and Mary Godwin (aka Mary Shelley), aged 14. Now, in real life these two women lived farther apart in age - Mary Shelley was 29 when Ada Byron was 11, but the author thought it would be fun to pair up the first programmer with the first science fiction author, and adjusted things. I'm not familiar enough with either person to know how realistic the rest of the portrayals are, but they characters are fun.
Interestingly, the books are on my dropbox because I backed the book on Kickstarter back in 2012, thinking that eventually I could share it with my daughter. I only backed for the ebook version of the first book, which through the magic of stretch goals meant that I was eventually given the first three novels as ebooks for the low cost of $10. It's a little amusing that as someone who backed the book at the lowest level, I've received all of my promised rewards, whereas folks who for more items seem to be complaining in the comments about missing items. It's hard to say how many folks are missing out - there always seems to be some folks who are disgruntled about a kickstarter.
But, the books are a lot of fun. Ada and Mary's relationship is rocky at first, but once they become more friendly, they decide to open up a clandestine detective agency together, and use Mary's late mother's name for it. The mysteries are at the base fairly simple - as these are stories for middle school children - but are obscured by the social realities of the time and the usual self interest. Ada is presented as someone who stays at home and is focused more on books, science, and math and has trouble remembering names and dealing with new situations, but Mary's friendliness and patience helps to slowly pull her out of her shell as the series goes on.
It's a fun series, and I suggest folks give it a try if they've got a child in their life who might enjoy some mysteries.
Since I don't have to wake her up in the morning anymore, I don't mind.
Anyway, a while back she wanted me to read to her in the dark, which normally could be a problem except I've got a lot of ebooks on my tablet that I can read. Having finished up the last one, I hunted around for a book to read and rediscovered the Wollstonecraft Detective Agency series by Jordan Stratford that I had hidden around in Dropbox. I happily loaded up the first book and started reading to my daughter, who likes them a lot.
The books are historical girl detective stories set in 1826, starring Ada Byron (aka Ada Lovelace), aged 11, and Mary Godwin (aka Mary Shelley), aged 14. Now, in real life these two women lived farther apart in age - Mary Shelley was 29 when Ada Byron was 11, but the author thought it would be fun to pair up the first programmer with the first science fiction author, and adjusted things. I'm not familiar enough with either person to know how realistic the rest of the portrayals are, but they characters are fun.
Interestingly, the books are on my dropbox because I backed the book on Kickstarter back in 2012, thinking that eventually I could share it with my daughter. I only backed for the ebook version of the first book, which through the magic of stretch goals meant that I was eventually given the first three novels as ebooks for the low cost of $10. It's a little amusing that as someone who backed the book at the lowest level, I've received all of my promised rewards, whereas folks who for more items seem to be complaining in the comments about missing items. It's hard to say how many folks are missing out - there always seems to be some folks who are disgruntled about a kickstarter.
But, the books are a lot of fun. Ada and Mary's relationship is rocky at first, but once they become more friendly, they decide to open up a clandestine detective agency together, and use Mary's late mother's name for it. The mysteries are at the base fairly simple - as these are stories for middle school children - but are obscured by the social realities of the time and the usual self interest. Ada is presented as someone who stays at home and is focused more on books, science, and math and has trouble remembering names and dealing with new situations, but Mary's friendliness and patience helps to slowly pull her out of her shell as the series goes on.
It's a fun series, and I suggest folks give it a try if they've got a child in their life who might enjoy some mysteries.
