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Summary
Summary
Splendors and Glooms
Author Notes
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)
Reviews (5)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Anyone who thinks marionettes are creepy will have that opinion reinforced by this dark tale about three children at the mercy of an unscrupulous puppeteer and the witch who pulls his strings. Clara Wintermute asks her father, a wealthy doctor in 1860 London, to hire Professor Grisini and his Venetian Fantoccini to entertain guests at her 12th birthday party. Clara is stagestruck by the puppets and taken with one of Grisini's two assistants, the pretty, well-mannered orphan Lizzie Rose (the other assistant, Parsefall, is an urchin straight out of a Dickensian workhouse). After the puppet show, Clara disappears. Grisini is suspected, but he, too, vanishes. The fate of the three children becomes intertwined with Grisini's old flame, the witch Cassandra Sagredo. It's a fairly complicated plot, and although the pacing occasionally lags, Newbery Medalist Schlitz (Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!) delivers many pleasures-fully dimensional children, period details so ripe one can nearly smell them, and droll humor that leavens a few scenes of true horror. A highly original tale about children caught in a harrowing world of magic and misdeeds. Ages 9-13. Agent: Stephen Barbara, Foundry Literary + Media. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Horn Book Review
Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, two Victorian waifs living under the guardianship of Grisini, a Fagin-like crook, magician, and puppeteer, cross paths with Clara, the cosseted only child of a London doctor. This meeting results in a kidnapping, the magical imprisonment of Clara in puppet form, and encounters with an aging witch, Cassandra; the whole plot of the book hinges on the curse of a fire opal. In this not-quite-parody novel Schlitz takes the conventions of melodrama and fleshes them out with toothsome scene setting (shes especially good on smells, gothic architectural touches, and the minutiae of Victorian death conventions) and surprising, original character details. The two heroes are fine foils for each other, the Victorian-good Lizzie Rose versus the street-pragmatic Parsefall. Grisini, with his back story in Venice, is pure moustache-twirling evil, and Cassandra is an intriguing portrait of bitter, regretful old age and bone-deep malevolence. The language is rich and lively, and Schlitz, exhibiting the delicate control of a puppeteer of words, even pulls off comic cockney: "But with your daughter, sir, there isnt any homnibus, and when theres no homnibus, theres ope." sarah ellis (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* A brooding, Dickensian novel with a touch of fantasy and a glimmer of hope, Schlitz's latest opens in London in 1860, when lonely Clara, the only remaining child in a doctor's grief-stricken household, attempts to celebrate her twelfth birthday. Grisini the puppet master is engaged to perform, along with the two orphaned children, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, who serve as his assistants. Clara bridges the class divide to befriend the children. After kidnapping Clara for ransom, cruel Grisini disappears, leaving Lizzie Rose and Parsefall struggling to survive on their own. They make their way to the country house of a bewitched woman whose magical amulet gives her amazing powers while draining away her humanity. There they learn certain grisly secrets involving their cruel master, Clara's fate, and the wealthy witch, who seeks to control them all. The magic of the storytelling here lies in the subtle depiction of menacing evil. After working its way insidiously through the characters' lives, it is defeated by the children, who grow in strength and understanding throughout the novel. Vividly portrayed and complex, the characters are well-defined individuals whose separate strands of story are colorful and compelling. Schlitz weaves them into an intricate tapestry that is as mysterious and timeless as a fairy tale. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Schlitz's Newbery Medal winner, Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village (2007) earned her a wide following, and librarians will be eager to see what she's up to next.--Phelan, Carolyn Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
WHAT a literary legacy those Victorians left us! Not only are Charles Dickens, H. G. Wells and Charlotte Brontë still widely read, but they and their compatriots continue to inspire writers today: steampunk aficionados with their marvelous mechanisms; those who go for Gothic shivers; and the many others who set their narratives in 19th-century England. Among them are writers for young people who, in addition to creating great stories, engage an audience with little knowledge or interest in Victoriana. Two who rise to the challenge this fall are the debut author Stefan Bachmann, a teenager who is studying music at the Zurich Conservatory, and the Newbery Award winner (for "Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!") Laura Amy Schlitz. In Bachmann's first book, "The Peculiar," the abrupt dismantling of the border between the human and faerie worlds eons earlier has forced the faeries to become a part of British life. Upper-class Sidhe interact with their English counterparts while the rest function as a squalid underclass largely shunned by humans. Among them are Bartholomew and Hettie Kettle, the offspring of a human and a faerie, known as "changelings" or "peculiars." Small and unattractive, 13-year-old Bartholomew could possibly pass as human, while the much younger Hettie, with tree branches rather than hair, cannot. The changeling rule, "Don't get yourself noticed and you won't get yourself hanged," keeps them hidden away, until one day the restless Bartholomew observes something outside his window that causes him to venture forth. He winds up in an adventure darker and more frightening than any he could have imagined. Meanwhile, far away from the Kettles lives Mr. Jelliby, a junior member of Parliament "not because he was particularly clever or good at anything, but because his mother was a Hessian princess very well connected, and had gotten him the position while playing croquet with the Duke of Norfolk." This young toff has been contentedly whiling away his days when a mysterious woman, a sinister Sidhe, and a series of frightening circumstances force him into action. Before long Bartholomew and Mr. Jelliby join forces to thwart some highly evil fay, find a kidnapped child and - what else? - save the world. Here is a richly realized alternate Victorian world of elegant upper-class homes and squalid faerie slums. Filled with healthy doses of suspense and action, this is a story young fantasy buffs are sure to enjoy. And while he is bound to be compared to Christopher Paolini, whose "Eragon" was also published while he was still in his teens, Bachmann has written an accomplished book that deserves to be considered on its own. In "Splendors and Glooms," Laura Amy Schlitz returns to the Gothic milieu of her debut novel, "A Drowned Maiden's Hair," this time dropping readers into a Dickensian London redolent of fog and atmosphere. Three young people take the lead in this engrossing tale, beginning with Clara Wintermute, the only surviving child of a wealthy doctor and his wife whose other offspring died years earlier from cholera. Because one was Clara's twin, her birthdays since have been grim affairs featuring presents, ostensibly from the departed children but actually bought by her mother, and a trip to the family mausoleum at Kensal Green cemetery. Her 12th is shaping up to be no different when Clara encounters a mesmerizing marionette troupe and persuades her father to let them entertain at her party. She is particularly taken with two orphans working the puppets, feisty Lizzie Rose and scrappy Parsefall, and before their performance sneaks them in for tea while their malevolent master, Gaspare Grisini, takes his with the servants. The celebration does not go well, and shortly thereafter Clara disappears. The police suspect Grisini has kidnapped her. However, they find no trace of Clara, and soon Grisini disappears too, leaving Lizzie Rose and Parsefall attempting to keep themselves alive in dire circumstances. Just when all seems hopeless, Lizzie Rose finds a letter to Grisini from an old childless friend of his with a strange suggestion. Without considering the ramifications of her extraordinary offer, the desperate children - lugging along the marionettes and a comical spaniel - head for the icy landscape of Strachan's Ghyll, an ominous, grand house where their potential benefactor lives, someone readers have already learned is a witch. There, as in the best Gothic fantasies, secrets, darkness and joy build to a thrilling and satisfying resolution. Schlitz skillfully manages multiple narratives as the story makes its complex way forward, creating scenes of warmth and humor along with those of drama and horror. Filled with lush language and delightful sensory details like the savored warmth of a velvet cloak, this marvelous story will keep readers absorbed throughout. While the intricate storytelling, captivating characters and evocative setting owe a great deal to Dickens, the book also feels very much in the tradition of such grand 20thcentury writers as Joan Aiken and Elizabeth Goudge. Filled with heart-pounding and heartrending moments, this delicious, glorious novel is the work of a master of children's literature. Monica Edinger is a fourth-grade teacher at the Dalton School. She blogs at Educating Alice.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-Set in a Dickensian London, Davina Porter is the perfect narrator to capture the nuances of the characters and the time period in Schlitz's exceptional Victorian fantasy (Candlewick, 2012). Listeners will ache for the orphan children, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, when they come up with money after pawning a watch. Should they have a proper meal and see the marionettes, or spend the money on practical items they so desperately need? Will they be able to hold onto it long enough to realize either option? The privileged Clara has been kidnapped and transformed by the evil puppet master Grisini. He gained his power from the witch, Cassandra, who desperately needs a child to steal the fire opal that fuels her magic, thereby saving her from a fiery death. Grisini offers up his charges, not realizing that they have discovered the puppet Clara. Parsefall believes it is the missing girl, and Lizzie Rose can't quite deny it. When Clara's father sees Parsefall using the puppet, he confronts the children who performed with their master on his daughter's birthday. Threatened by the possibility of police, the children flee. Cassandra's promise of an inheritance and money for the train arrive just in time. If and how the three children can save themselves will keep listeners enthralled to the very end. Porter's deliberate pacing intensifies the drama and her talent with accents broadens the portrayals. A not-to-be-missed gothic thriller.-Janet Thompson, Chicago Public Library, W. Belmont Branch, IL (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
