This got me through a rough commute today, thanks to Kate DiCamillo for giving me something to focus on as I struggled my way to work. The Hotel Balzaar is set in her Norendy universe, of which this is my first time reading, so I’m not that clear on what differentiates Norendy from our world, but I had a pleasant time visiting. Marta’s father has gone missing during the war (it seems to be WWI but it’s not specified) and her mother has had to find work as a maid at the Hotel Balzaar, a slightly down at the heels establishment without a lot of customers. Marta has to keep quiet and out of the way, mainly spending her time gazing at the painting and the clock in the lobby and dodging the attention of the tightly wound front desk clerk, Alfonse. Marta is sad and lonely and longing for her father to return when a new guest shows up at the hotel, an elderly countess with a parrot named Blitzkoff. The countess begins to tell Marta seven stories, one a day, and Marta starts to believe that these stories hold the key to finding out if her father is alive or dead.
This is fantasy in the best dreamy children’s fiction way, the sort of in between realm that really works for me. There’s enough plausible deniability to make it magical for the child and still within the realm of possibility for the adult, but we as the reader can tell that magic is real and there is hope in the world. I think the themes here about difficult experiences being intertwined together, the conflicts and chaos that sometimes we have to undergo and sit with before something else might happen, were a subtle choice beyond the typical good-versus-evil themes of literature aimed at this age group. Marta’s life is being hugely affected by forces far beyond her control. Especially as a child, she has no ability to really do anything about her situation beyond listening to the countess’s stories, but her making that choice brings hope and a sort of escape hatch for her. DiCamillo’s descriptions of the small joys of life — dancing on the roof in the snow, the green new leaves of spring, the beauty of art — versus the horrors of war were very impactful to me. She really brings the whole milieu of the hotel to us, aided by Júlia Sardà’s wonderful illustrations.
Definitely recommended!
