New magical stories from Kate DiCamillo and two young adult novels about struggling teens, as well as wisdom about losing vision. It’s a good day for Minnesota books.
“The Hotel Balzaar”: by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Julia Sarda (Candlewick Press. $17.99)
They made a strange little procession, and as Marta climbed, she thought of the words on the perfume bottle, the talking fox, the nightingale, the lullaby, the singing boy, the King. What did it all mean? And what did it have to do with her father? She didn’t know, But it all must mean something; it must matter. — from “The Hotel Balzaar.”
One of our young readers’ most popular authors, Kate DiCamillo, is back with another magical tale in this second in her Norendy Tale series that began with “The Puppet of Spelhorst.” In this new original fairytale, DiCamillo tells stories within stories in a shabby hotel where Marta’s mother is a maid.
Marta and her mom live in an attic room at the hotel, and Marta is warned to be quiet as a mouse, never allowing guests to see her. She can’t even take the elevator. Marta’s lonely for her dad, who is away fighting in World War I, and nobody has heard from him for more than a year. She spends her time going up and down the back stairs to the lobby, visiting a painting with an angel’s wing, watching the cat chase the mouse on the face of the big clock and visiting the sleepy bellman.
One day the elegant and mysterious old Countess arrives with a green-feathered parrot on her shoulder who used to be a great human general. The kind old woman tells Marta stories of about a witch, circuses, a nun. And Marta has a vision of her and her parents walking in the snow. The Countess’ stories don’t make sense to Marta. Are they about the Countess? About Marta? About her father? In the end, it all makes sense when the stories come together.
DiCamillo’s writing is lyrical, as usual, and equal credit has to go to Sarda’s exquisite, detailed illustrations of the hotel lobby, the furniture and the Countess’ deco robes and huge hats that capture vibes of the 1920s.
Publishers Weekly’s starred review says: “…DiCamillo showcases the capacity for storytelling to soothe and inspire hope in a pithy, nuanced tale peppered with gentle humor and enduring grace.”
DiCamillo introduces her novel, for grades 2 to 5, in the Talking Volumes reading series at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, at the Fitzgerald Theater, 10 E. Exchange St., St. Paul. $30-$22.50. For information go to mprevents.org.
“The Braille Encyclopedia”: by Naomi Cohn (Rose Metal Press, $15.95)
Braille is the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, those almost touching fingers of God and Adam. When my finger touches braille bumps, something moves in me.” — from “The Braille Encyclopedia”
One of the most difficult issues anyone can deal with is diminishment of sight. Naomi Cohn’s book, subtitled “Brief Essays on Altered Sight,” is so interesting and inventive it should be read by everyone, including those who, like the author, have learned to read through Braille. Her writing about what happens when her fingers fly across the raised bumps is beautiful.
Part lyric essay, part prose poetry, this memoir is famed as an imagined encyclopedia that details progressive vision loss and the author’s embrace of Braille to read and write. Along the way we learn of the invention of Braille in the 19th century by Frenchman Louis Braille, who accidentally blinded himself with an awl, a tool that is the second word in Cohn’s encyclopedia. It’s followed by alphabetical meditations on words such as “Fissure,” which she describes as “those thready capillaries fissuring my retinas, moving me past mere eyestrain and headaches, past my fantastical floaters — the bestiary of ocular flotsam to rival anything van Leeuwenhoek saw under his microscope lens — and into blindness.”
There is something in this hard-to-categorize book for everyone. Those who are dealing with failing eyesight will learn a lot. Those lucky enough to have full vision will find wisdom and lovely prose.
Cohn, who lives in St. Paul, will read at 5:30 p.m. Monday at Workhorse Coffee, 2399 W. University Ave., St. Paul. It’s free and open to the public.
“The Glass Girl”: by Kathleen Glasgow (Delacorte Press, $21.99)
Whose house is this and where are we? Why are there so many kids here on Thanksgiving? Maybe their parents don’t love them, either. Maybe their parents are too busy all the time. Maybe their parents are drunk, too, right now. All those talks they give you in school. In one ear and out the other. You matter. You belong. It’s a lie. If we mattered or belonged we would not be here right now, smoking and drinking and getting high. Right? — from “The Glass Girl”
Former Minnesotan Kathleen Glasgow follows her bestselling “Girl in Pieces” with a stunning novel about teen addiction and a girl’s road to recovery. Glasgow excels at making the reader feel sympathy, empathy and sometimes anger for Bella, a 15-year-old who is using alcohol to try to keep her life together. It’s not working. She spends most of her day thinking about how to get liquor and when and where to drink it in secret. Sure, she’s hung over a lot, but other kids at school are much worse about drinking alcohol and so are the parents, she tells herself.
Bella has a lot on her plate. After her much-loved little sister was born, her family fell apart. Seven-year-old Ricci seems to be on the autism spectrum, although that word is never used in the book. It is Bella who knows how to calm her sister and keep to her routines. Their parents fight constantly and Bella tries to be the best possible daughter. She hates being the communicator between her feuding parents while she and her sister spend alternate weeks with their mother and father. And her beloved grandmother, once a famous photographer of celebrities and rock stars, has just died. It was her grandmother who gave Bella her first taste of alcohol when she was 11.
The only good thing in Bella’s life is that her grandmother’s house is empty and she can drink there in peace. She thinks she’s managing her drinking, even though her best friend knows Bella is having blackouts. A horrific incident after a night of too much alcohol leads to an intervention and Bella being sent to rehab at a ranch near Tucson. Her interaction with kids who have all kinds of addictions makes up the second half of the story as Bella learns through hard work, some tough love and sympathetic counselors the tools for staying healthy and alcohol-free. She “graduates” and returns home and to school. Some books about teen addiction end there, but Glasgow follows Bella through the difficult transition into living alcohol-free.
Whether you are a teenager, addicted or not, or a worried parent, this book will grip you. No wonder it received starred reviews from Book List, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal
Glasgow, who lives in Tucson, has an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota where she coordinated the graduate creative writing program for 13 years. She is co-author, with Liz Lawson, of the bestselling mystery series “The Agathas” and “The Night in Question.”
“Suddenly Rural Girl”: by Dann & Kennedy Hurlbert (Kirk House Publishers, $19.95)
As kids, we’re programmed to make wishes all the time. Birthday candles, falling stars, pennies in fountains, eyelashes, blowing on dandelions, and on and on. But those are wishes on inanimate objects. Things. Wishing for something doesn’t make it happen… but after last weekend, I wondered if praying can. What if instead of wishing on inanimate, spiritless objects, it was possible to wish — to pray — to a God that could make some things come true? —from “Suddenly Rural Girl”
This involving, touching and sometimes humorous novel by father/daughter co-authors is subtitled “Facing Life, Death, Mean Girls, And Cute Boys in Rural America.” Published by a Christian publishing house, protagonist Dakota Moore’s search for meaning underlies this contemporary story that could be any teenager’s awakening to questions of faith. What the authors do so well is weave Dakota’s day-to-day life into her growing awareness of God without hitting the reader over the head with sermons.
After Dakota’s father dies tragically, her Native American (Sioux) mother moves her and her lisping little brother from urban Michigan to a secluded A-frame in northern Minnesota. A few months after the move Dakota has made friends with a blind old gentleman and his horse, Eyeballs. When school begins she’s aware of the perils of being the newcomer, especially when she meets the resident Mean Girl. But she also makes friends, including a boy who might be a miracle worker she meets just in time.
Dann Hurlbert has an MFA in digital cinema and spent 15 years acting, directing, and teaching film and theater. He is media and design specialist at Carleton College in Northfield. Kennedy, who inspired much of the story and corrected her dad’s teen lingo, enjoys being with friends, whipping up desserts and spending time at any lake, anywhere.
This post was originally published on here
