The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What do literary critics mean when they talk about narrative voice? How are terms like “reliable” or “unreliable” narrator, “style,” “tone,” “perspective,” and “point of view” related to the idea of narrative voice? How does understanding narrative voice help the reader make meaning from a text?

Teaching Suggestion: Flavia’s distinctive voice is a significant factor in the popularity of the Flavia de Luce series. A thorough appreciation of this narrative voice will increase students’ enjoyment of the novel and support their understanding of the novel’s themes of The Precocious Child Detective and Social Class and Interpersonal Relationships. This prompt intends to measure what students already know about narrative voice and pinpoint gaps in their understanding before reading the novel. After students make a first attempt at responding to this prompt, you might offer the resources listed below, as needed, to help them strengthen their understanding. Afterward, you might ask students to go back and revise their initial responses to the prompt as a way to check their understanding and increase their retention of any new information.