The Hotel Balzaar A Norendy Tale by Kate DiCamillo , Júlia Sardà (Illustrator)

The Hotel Balzaar A Norendy Tale by Kate DiCamillo, illustrated by Júlia Sardà 

Publisher:  Candlewick Press
Format:  Ebook
Number of pages:   176 pages
Hardcover Published:  October 1st, 2024 and paperback releasing 9/25
Source:  Edelweiss +

Opening Lines: "In March of that year, Marta and her mother arrived at Hotel Balzaar."

Over the past few weeks I've had some more free time than usual and started to peruse Edelweiss + for upcoming books.  To my delight Hotel Balzaar caught my eye, it seems the paperback is releasing in September.  Being a fan of Kate DiCamillo's books, I instantly sat down to read the book.

Marta's mother has just been hired as a maid at the Hotel Balzaar and they've taken up residence in a little room in the attic.  While Marta's mother cleans the rooms, Marta is to stay as quiet as a mouse, and under no circumstance is she to disturb the guests.  But what's a young girl to do all day to keep herself busy?  Marta tries to abide by her mother's wishes, but often she makes her way down the back stairs to the lobby where she chats with the bellman,  makes her rounds looking at a painting, studying the hotel's grandfather clock and dreaming of the day her father will be found and can finally come back to her, a secret she hasn't even shared with her mother.

One day, just before noon a countess arrives at the hotel with a parrot (Blitzkoff) perched on her shoulder.  The countess offers to tell Marta a story, seven stories in all beginning with the story of a general.  Marta is at first apprehensive of going to the countesses room, but as she listens to each story she finds herself mesmerized in learning how each story is connected and by the promise of each story building from the last.  Are the countesses stories also somehow connected to her father?  Then before the countess can reveal her final story, she disappears and Marta is left wondering if she's been lied to from the very beginning.

Kate DiCamillo's books are always a treat to read and Hotel Balzaar is defiantly something special.  This would make for a wonderful read aloud or book for a parent to read with their child so that the meaning of words like "beguiling and brilliance" can be further explained.  The story has a lovely repetitive quality at the beginning with a repetition of the lines where Marta is looking at the grandfather clock with the cat chasing the mouse and the angel wing painting, adding on climbing down the back stairs and further exploration of the hotel.  There's something comforting about these repeated lines. 

Marta's mother begins to share things that were left behind in peoples rooms with her, an empty perfume bottle and then a pair of slippers.  But the countesses stories bring Marta questions.  Questions about her father and how he is going to find them since they've moved from their previous home.  Questions about the meaning of each story and their connection to her.  Marta places hope in these stories and the answers that they might provide her.  As a reader, I was vested in putting the pieces together too.  Answers do finally come and its revealed through the idea of light seeping through the countesses stories.  

The black and white illustrations really add to the story and I love the one that shows the different floors of the hotel, where each person is and what they're doing.  Such fun.  Included at the back of the ebook where discussion question that prompted the reader to think about the historical time period, like why there were different rules for different people or why Marta's mom kept her hair up during the day only brushing it at night.  Even posing questions on the literal and figurative meanings of various events and prompting the reader to reflect on stereotypes and war.  Overall, this is a beautiful addition to Kate DiCamillo's other books and made for a very enjoyable read.                  

 I hope you'll check out all the other Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts at Greg Pattridge's blog HERE