Splendors and Glooms, by Laura Amy Schlitz, won the 2013 Newberry medal. The story is engaging and dark and sophisticated—all the things I believe are perfect for young readers. It has to do with a puppeteer who has magic that can turn a child into a puppet—which is a creepy premise all on its own. Add to that a witch, a wealthy girl who’s kidnapped by the puppeteer, two children who work for this kidnapper and you’ve got a recipe for an adventurous, sometimes a little scary, story.
Lizzie Rose and Parsefall work for the Puppet Master Gaspare Grisini, who is so skilled at puppeteering that he can make it look as though the puppets are alive. Clara Wintermute sees one of his shows and begs her parents to let the Puppet Master and the children who work with him come into their home for her birthday party. In Clara, Grisini sees a chance to make a fortune. In Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, Clara sees a chance to make friends and change her lonely existence, even though social rules say this is little more than a child’s dream.
And then Clara disappears. Lizzie Rose and Parsefall embark on a journey to find her, which leads them to a witch, a lake and a magical tower.
What struck me about Splendors and Glooms is that it is not only a well told story, but Schlitz’s use of language is skilled and intentional. Her dialogue, which included some British working class dialect, was accurate and realistic to the time. The mystery she wove into the pages kept those pages turning. And though it was a bit long for a middle grade title, it never once felt long. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire book.
I enjoyed the relationships formed between the characters the most. The characters were three-dimensional people with detailed backstories and reasons for why they did what they did. Good fiction always feels, to me, like it’s a study in human nature, and kid-lit should be as well. Schlitz provided that study with her characters—the orphaned girl, the tragic rich child who suffers from loneliness, the boy who was abandoned to a child labor facility. Even the evil puppeteer had a few corners of his personality that you couldn’t help but enjoy. These were rich and layered characters, one of the best features of Splendors and Glooms.
Not only that, but because the book was a bit dark and tragic, Schlitz wrote with wonderful emotion. The first sentence alone grabs a reader by the throat and pulls. Here it is:
“The witch burned. She tossed in a sea of blankets, dizzy with heat. It was fever, not fire, that tormented her, fever and the nightmares that came with it.”
There is so much mystery and sensory agitation—the burning—and emotion in these three sentences. What a way to start a book.
This is definitely a book I’ll be reading again with my boys. I think they’d enjoy the creepy puppet world and the magical elements of the book.
I hope you enjoyed this look at Splendors and Glooms. To see more of my book recommendations, visit On My Shelf.
The book link above is an affiliate link. I only recommend books that I personally enjoy. I actually don’t even talk about the books I don’t enjoy, because I’d rather forget I ever wasted time reading them.
