Description Share Post The Hotel Balzaar A Norendy Tale Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Júlia Sardà (Walker Books) While Marta’s mother awakens and prepares for her work in The Hotel Balzaar before sunrise, Marta’s routine is one of being silenced. It seems that ‘All day long’ she ‘must be quiet, quiet’. While she ‘may leave the room, – wherever [she goes Marta] must be quiet as a small mouse’. Thereafter, she slinks down ‘the back stairs, wooden, worn and dark‘. However, there’s a clock to watch, alongside Norman, who can sleep standing up at his doorman position. Then again, Marta knows to escape the attention of the receptionist, Alfonse, ‘a man who was a bit too fond of a straight edge’. So, how might Marta’s life be changed by the arrival of the Countess? After all, she promises Marta stories from ‘Room 314‘. It’s little secret that Kate DiCamillo is amongst Bookwagon’s very favourite writers. In fact, her Because of Winn-Dixie is an inspiration for this little bookstore. It means that hopes are high when we step upstairs and downstairs with Marta. That we might find hope in the stories that the Countess tells. However, there’s a deeper hope. What of Marta’s father? It seems that he was lost at war and thus, it seems as though Marta lost her setting. It means that her mother exists in a turret of isolation, duty and memory. Bookwagon loves the economy, grace and light of this story. Like The Puppets of Spelhorst, this is a Norendy tale, which offers it the form of a classic, traditional story. Furthermore, Júlia Sardà’s illustrations are suggestive of history, iron cast and cross edged. Altogether it makes The Hotel Balzaar a story to read aloud, love, know and hold close.
