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12 teosta 5,246 jäsentä 340 arvostelua 1 Favorited

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Laura Amy Schlitz is the writer of the 2008 Newbery Medal-winning Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from the Medieval Village and the 2013 Newbery Medal-winning Spendors and Glooms. (Bowker Author Biography)
Image credit: Laura Amy Schlitz holding her latest books, A Drowned Maiden's Hair and A Night Fairy. At the 2010 Baltimore Book Festival. ©2010

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Short but sweet. Learned a couple of things about the crusades and medieval culture that I did not know. Pieces fit together to form more of a story than just individual monologues
 
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cspiwak | 87 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Mar 6, 2024 |
Puppets come to life and kidnapping were not appealing to me and I did not get into the book quick enough to hold my attention.
 
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Kaeli_Cook | 55 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Feb 29, 2024 |
I'd recommend this book to kids looking for something challenging, spooky, and full of mystery and magic. The length (400 pages) and font size (too small) were, at first, daunting and put me off starting the book, but by the end of the first chapter I was hooked.

Splendors and Glooms begins with a witch, a rich girl, and puppets. It's set in the Victorian era, when London was a dirty, frightening place, especially for an orphan. Our heroes, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, are two orphans with the same guardian--the freaky, villainous Gaspare Grisini, a master puppeteer with magical abilities. Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are basically Grisini's slaves, dragging his puppet cart around London and helping him perform shows to earn a meager living.

Our rich girl, Clara Wintermute, happens upon one of Grisini's puppet shows, and thus launches the action of the book. Grisini, Lizzie Rose, and Parsefall, are invited to visit Clara's home on her birthday to put on a show and the results are disastrous.

Author Laura Amy Schlitz did so many excellent things with this book. First, she made her villains human, but none the less frightening for their humanity. She made her heroes likable and distinct. The readers can see into the heads of Lizzie Rose, Parsefall, and Clara, and so we understand that Lizzie Rose is always striving to be good (I particularly loved it when Lizzie Rose consciously chose to make decisions as if she were the youngest sister in a fairy tale--always the most noble one). We understand that Parsefall is dirty, sneaky, and often frightened, but in possession of a strong conscience when it comes to Lizzie Rose. And we see that Clara, though pampered, has suffered almost as much Parsefall.

This book makes no mistakes, except that its dark, intimidating appearance may scare away potential readers. Some have said that it's overlong, but I enjoyed every word. For the dedicated reader, this will be a treasure.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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LibrarianDest | 55 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jan 3, 2024 |
I did not expect to like this as much as I did, but the writing really won me over. Laura Amy Schlitz can tell a story so well with so few words, which is a talent all great writers have. Consider this passage: "Young fairies have no one to take care of them because fairies make bad parents. Babies bore them. A fairy godmother is an excellent thing, but a fairy mother is a disaster." It's clever, funny, and sets up Flory's predicament quickly and convincingly.

I don't usually go for fairy stories, but this was more like a survival tale. Flory is all alone and needs to find shelter, food, and allies in order to survive. The other characters in the story (especially the not-too-bright, constantly hungry squirrel and the angry, stubborn spider) challenged Flory's courage and resourcefulness. I expected to find too much cute, but instead I got a satisfying little adventure.

I'm probably alone on this last point, but I'll say it anyway: I had to ignore the illustrations and focus on the writing in order to let myself like it. What's wrong with the illustrations? Oh, maybe it's just a sensibility thing. They felt out-of-date and precious, i.e. not my cup of tea.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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LibrarianDest | 39 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jan 3, 2024 |

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Tilastot

Teokset
12
Jäseniä
5,246
Suosituimmuussija
#4,749
Arvio (tähdet)
4.0
Kirja-arvosteluja
340
ISBN:t
146
Kielet
3
Kuinka monen suosikki
1

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