Tag: magical story

cover of The Hotel Balzaar
Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

The Hotel Balzaar

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

The Hotel Balzaar (Candlewick Press, 2024) by Kate DiCamillo is a sweet story of stories within a story. It’s beautifully illustrated by Júlia Sardà.

Marta and her mother live in a hotel where Marta must be as quiet and invisible as a small mouse while her mother works. Marta obeys until a countess with a parrot arrives and invites her to visit. The stories the countess tells don’t seem connected and Marta is not sure they are even true, but they give her hope.

Part of The Norendy Tales, this book is aimed at ages 7-10, but I think older readers will enjoy as well. The first book in the collection is The Puppets of Spelhorst and coming in September is a third, Lost Evangeline. The books stand alone but share a world.

Kate is a two-time Newbery winner who writes picture books, early chapter books, and middle grade novels. Read more about this award winning author here.

Júlia is an author as well as an illustrator–read about her here and see samples of her work here.

Posted in MG Novels, So Many Good Books

The Wrinkled Crown

Posted on by Susan Uhlig

This is the second time for me to read a book by Anne Nesbet. I liked the first book. I like the fantasy The Wrinkled Crown (Harper, 2015) even more. And this coming Monday in Portland, Oregon, the author will be speaking at a bookstore called Green Bean Books!

But back to the book…

Almost twelve-year-old Linnet (Linny) lives in Lourka where the rule is that no girl must even accidentally touch a lourka, the musical instrument with the same name as the village. If she touches one, on her twelfth birthday she’ll be taken by the voices to Away. Because Linny is so musically inclined even as a baby, her father gives her a tethered twin, Sayra, to keep her safe. Sayra, Linny’s best friend, is too kind and lets Linny off of the tether where no one can see. Of course, Linny more than breaks the rule about lourkas. But on their birthday, it’s not Linny who is taken!

The opening line is intriguing: “It was maybe Linny’s last day of all–a pretty horrible thought–but the air in the meadow was humming with sunlight, as if nothing were the slightest bit wrong.” But better yet are the struggles that follow, because Linny has to do everything she can to save Sayra.

“I write books for young people-well, to be honest, I write stories I would want to read myself, and I am younger than the average dragon, but older than most poodles.” – Anne Nesbet