Laura Amy Schlitz

The wonderful memoir-style story of a stubborn, intelligent girl making her way in 1911. The story is full of thoughtful moments -- about religion, self-determination, confidence, meddling (and consequences), love, education and hard, hard work. Inspiring and excellent in pacing, characters and a beautifully immersive setting. One cannot help but admire Joan's spirit, even as we cringe at her mistakes, innocent and honest though they may be. Hard to put down.

Also, Joan's commentary on why a show more cat is better than a sweetheart is hilarious -- ultimately there is a lack of fur that just can't be got around. :) show less

Tiph longs for the antique doll that she sees in the window of the specialty dollhouse shop, but she's not even allowed in the store anymore after an incident with the proprietor. Gretel, the doll, longs for Tiph as well, but she must follow the rules of being a doll, and cannot move when a human might see her. When Tiph meets an older Hungarian woman, Szilvia, and learns that she has an old, unused dollhouse at home, events are really set in motion. But will Tiph and Gretel ever be show more united?

Laura Amy Schiltz is an author with range. I never know what I will be going into when reading one of her books, but I know it will be well written and will resound with me emotionally. This sounds like a typical little people story, with dolls that come alive when nobody is around to see them (and that is a delightful factor, for those who relish that kind of story), but it has so much more to offer in terms of character development and plot. This book got me out of a wintery reading slump, and I would recommend it to children and grownups alike, if the premise intrigues. show less

This was ~almost~ a perfect book. The conclusion was just a little anti-climactic given the brilliance of the rest of the book, but that's my only negative comment.
Lizzie Rose and Parsefall are apprentices to Grisini, a master puppetteer in 19th century London. He is a harsh man, and took in the two orphans more because he could use them than because they needed help. Grisini is called upon to give a show at the home of the wealthy Wintermute's, whose sole living daughter, Clara, saw the show more puppets in the park one day and has wanted nothing else since. Clara tries to befriend Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, but when all is done, she is cornered by Grisini, who turns out not merely to be a bad man, but a truly wicked one, with a bit of witchcraft in him.
This is only the first few chapters of the book, but I won't say more, lest I give away things that are better discovered on reading the book. The cast of characters is fairly small, and each one well developed. Though a little longer than the average YA novel, there is nothing wasted. Everything is part of the overall tale. There are no pointless subplots.
Deliciously creepy and Neil Gaiman-esque. show less

(Full disclosure: I received a free ARC for review through Edelweiss and Library Thing's Early Reviewers program. Content warning for child abuse, animal abuse, and sexual assault.)

The children I spoke of before were like that. They weren’t alike, but they fit together, like lock and key. The boy, Rhaskos,
was a slave boy. Unlucky at first.
A Thracian boy—(Thrace is north of Greece)
—redheaded, nervy, neglected. A clever boy who was taught he was stupid. A beautiful boy whose mother show more
scarred him with a knife.
The girl, Melisto, started life lucky.
A rich man’s daughter, and a proper Greek. Owl-eyed Melisto: a born fighter,
prone to tantrums, hating the loom.
A wild girl, chosen by Artemis, and lucky, as I said before—
except for one thing: she died young.
This is their story. When it's over, if you like, you can tell me what it means.

***

"I want to tell you the things I never told anyone, in case this is my last chance. When I was alive, I didn’t talk much. So much of what I felt was a secret. I think that’s what I loved about the bear. Neither of us had any words."

***

Again we walked and talked. I never talked to anyone like that. No one ever talked like that to me. I talk to you still, Melisto. I’ve been talking to you ever since.

***

The red-haired boy variously known as Rhaskos, Thrax, and Pyrrhos is many things, though few of his masters care to know. He's Thracian nobility, with the scars to prove it - and also a slave, belonging to the wealthy Alexidemus and his soldier son Menon in Thessaly, and then to a humble potter named Phaistus in Athens. He loves horses and is as adept at handling them as he will one day become at drawing and sculpting them. He is a contemporary and friend of Sokrates, though he is powerless to stop his execution. He is an orphan, with a dolphin for a mother; a mother who loves him so fiercely that she curses a ghost to help set him free. He is like clay: common at first glance, but also not; capable of transmuting into creations lovely, clever, and full of value.

The owl-eyed girl called Melisto is seemingly as lucky as Rhaskos is not: the only child of a wealthy Athenian, Melisto wants for nothing. But she is a wild (read: untamed) girl child in a rigidly gendered society that has already predetermined Melisto's future for her: marriage, motherhood, a life of quiet domesticity. When, at the age of ten, Melisto is chosen to serve the goddess Athena as a Little Bear, her life opens up before her at Brauron; this is who she was meant to be. Like all good things, it cannot last.

Rhaskos and Melisto's destinies collide when Melisto frees a bear cub that is to be sacrificed to Athena. Or maybe their paths met even earlier, when Meda/Thratta was ripped from her toddler son. Perhaps the gods nudged them towards each other from birth. Alternately, the gods have nothing to do with it. Who can say? (Hermes, maybe. He has a lot to say and loves to hear himself talk!)

AMBER AND CLAY is ... not what I expected. Normally I'd steer clear of a contemporary (or any!) book styled after the ancient, epic poems (I positively labored through THE ODYSSEY and THE ILIAD in high school!), but the visual element sucked me in. I was under the (mistaken!) impression that AMBER AND CLAY would be heavier in illustrations than it actually is, almost as though part graphic novel. As it turns out, the illustrations - of archaeological artifacts - are a little sparser than I hoped, but they tie into the narrative quite nicely and add another layer of wonder and surprise to the story. The "exhibits" are really well done and do not disappoint.

Additionally, the synopsis had me thinking that this would be a supernatural romance; and while AMBER AND CLAY is indeed a love story, Rhaskos and Melisto are entirely too young to hook up, even by the time they finally meet near the story's end. (It's hard not to envision them - especially Rhaskos - as older than they are, both because the story seemingly stretching across years, and so much happens to these crazy kids to last several lifetimes.) Instead, this is a different kind of love story: AMBER AND CLAY tells of the love between a mother and her son; a father and his daughter; a teacher and his students; a girl and a bear; a ghost and her tether to the earth.

And despite my reservations about those epic poems, Schlitz both honors the form and breathes new life into it. While Melisto tells her story in prose, Rhaskos speaks in verse; and the gods sometimes address us commoners in turn-counterturn, occasionally using more complicated linguistic techniques like elegian couplets (which I barely recollect from HS English). This all sounds incredibly tricky and complicated (and undoubtedly is), but Schlitz pulls it off without a hitch. AMBER AND CLAY is fun and engaging, with a surprising sense of humor and expert sense of dramatic flair.

***

“Oh, Phaistus, look at his hair! He’ll be beautiful once he’s healed.
We’ll call him Pyrrhos!” As if I were a dog.
Pyrrhos means fiery.
Half the red-haired slaves in Athens are called Pyrrhos.

***

It is, dare I say, exceedingly readable.

Honestly, I let out a little groan when I saw the "Cast of Characters" on page one, complete with various households and multiple monikers for the same people; but the story, the characters, their relationships to one another - all are easy enough to follow.

Schlitz's characters, both those based on historical figures and those spun from imagination and whimsy, are so full of life that they practically jump off the page. Rhaskos and Melisto; Meda and Lysandra; Phaistus and Zosima; Menon and Lykos; and, of course, Sokrates. Likewise, her descriptions of Greek life and customs left me hungering to learn more. Naturally, the most fascinating custom - that of the Little Bears of Brauron - is also that which we know the least about.

The scenes featuring Melisto and the bear cub are among my favorite in the book. In a story filled with animal sacrifice, this little slice of compassion and respect is life-affirming; to wit:

***

It turned in slow circles and collapsed with its rump pressed against her thigh. Melisto put one hand on it. It seemed to her that she had never touched anything more real than the bear cub."

***

For a moment her mind slipped back into the past. She recalled the bruises she had carried from her mother’s pinches, and the sore patches on her scalp from Lysandra’s hair-pulling. She remembered the loathing in her mother’s face that struck terror into her soul. She had never been afraid of the bear like that.

***

and

***

On the nights when she waded into the bay and watched the moon, she was barely conscious of the fact that it was she who saw, and the moon that was being watched. In the same way, she did not measure how much she loved the bear. She was the bear.

***

Likewise, Rhaskos's interactions with Grau/Phoibe are so wonderfully tender, my heart aches just to think back on them. From the moment he renames her (grau means hag) - a change of name that's much more respectful than those Rhaskos was forced to accept - Rhaskos treats his donkey charge with decency and kindness. The same kindness that he himself longs for.

***

Animals know when things get better. People might not know, but animals do.
That very first day, Grau knew
I was going to be good to her
and I swear to you, she was glad.

***

Cue the "what is this salty discharge" gifs.

AMBER AND CLAY is such a beautiful story, and I'm glad I took a chance on it. Iambic pentameter be damned. show less