The Bad Seed: William March

With a sweet smile and be-ribboned braids, eight-year old Rhoda Penmark is the new darling at the exclusive Fern Grammar in small-town Alabama. Always in beautiful dresses, never getting dirty, always polite to adults...she is a model pupil in every way - and perhaps...a serial killer. Rhoda has no sense of fair play or empathy. When little Rhoda wants something, she'll make sure she gets it and she doesn't care how - she only cares that she doesn't get caught. Her mother becomes suspicious and then certain - and wonders if her own mysterious past has created this monster-child. First published in 1954, this book was shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, became a Broadway play that ran for 334 performances and made into an Oscar nominated film in 1956, with a rewritten ending, starring Nancy Kelly and Patty McCormack. Cover of this edition shows Patty McCormack as Rhoda in the original 1956 film.