The Hotel Balzaar

In a wise and magical follow-up to the critically acclaimed The Puppets of Spelhorst, Kate DiCamillo revisits the land of Norendy, where tales swirl within tales and where every moment is a story in the making. At the Hotel Balzaar, Martas mother rises before the sun, puts on her uniform and instructs her to roam as she will ... but quietly invisibly like a mouse. While her mother cleans rooms, Marta slips down the back staircase to the grand lobby to chat with the bellman, study the painting of an angels wing over the fireplace, and watch a cat chase a mouse around the face of the grandfather clock, all while dreaming of the return of her soldier father. One day, a mysterious countess with a parrot checks in, promising a story in fact, seven stories in all. As the stories unfold, Marta begins to wonder: could the secret to her fathers disappearance lie in the countesss tales?