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cindywho's review
4.0
Spent a few cozy hours reading about a young girl shipwrecked on a sandy beach. In between storms she discovers a magical hotel and builds a new family.
fearandtrembling's review
4.0
A young girl finds herself alone in the Dunes after a storm has taken away everything she ever knew. She finds a hotel buried under the sand and friends in new forms. It is, in essence, a book for children about learning how to live in a mysterious, difficult world, but the narrative voice is never didactic or twee. It is warm and generous and wise. A smart, imaginative book about the nature of ghosts, time, and loss and a delightful read for all ages.
pussreboots's review
4.0
The Hotel Under the Sand by Kage Baker opens with Emma surviving a terrible storm in which she loses everything and everyone in her life. She washes up on the Dunes and spends the first night surviving a sand storm. On her second day she meets a ghost and discovers a long buried hotel.
The narrative style brings to mind Roald Dahl. It begins with extraordinary but relatively unexplained circumstances and proceeds through a series of adventures. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie, though destitute, finds the last remaining Golden Ticket, and for the remainder of the book, takes the our of Willy Wonka's factory where each new room is more usual and dangerous than the last. Emma's adventures are contained within the walls of her hotel and are primarily focused on a treasure hunt left behind by the hotel's owner.
Along the way Emma brings together an unlikely set of friends, comprised of a ghost, a runaway, a pirate and a cook. These sorts of ensemble casts with a single child and her collected friends, was de rigueur when I was a child but have fallen out of practice in lieu of a pair (or sometimes trio) of adventuring siblings. Emma's solo status was a refreshing change.
The book would work well for a class read along. The relatively straightforward treasure hunting plot combined with a manageable vocabulary would make it fun book for teachers looking for something newer to read with students.
The Hotel Under the Sand was nominated for a 2009 CYBILS.
The narrative style brings to mind Roald Dahl. It begins with extraordinary but relatively unexplained circumstances and proceeds through a series of adventures. In Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie, though destitute, finds the last remaining Golden Ticket, and for the remainder of the book, takes the our of Willy Wonka's factory where each new room is more usual and dangerous than the last. Emma's adventures are contained within the walls of her hotel and are primarily focused on a treasure hunt left behind by the hotel's owner.
Along the way Emma brings together an unlikely set of friends, comprised of a ghost, a runaway, a pirate and a cook. These sorts of ensemble casts with a single child and her collected friends, was de rigueur when I was a child but have fallen out of practice in lieu of a pair (or sometimes trio) of adventuring siblings. Emma's solo status was a refreshing change.
The book would work well for a class read along. The relatively straightforward treasure hunting plot combined with a manageable vocabulary would make it fun book for teachers looking for something newer to read with students.
The Hotel Under the Sand was nominated for a 2009 CYBILS.
claredragonfly's review against another edition
5.0
This is such a sweet little book. It made me very happy. If I had read this book when I was a child (which of course I couldn't have done, as it only came out two years ago), I feel certain I would have read it dozens of times over by now, just like The Chronicles of Narnia. I want a copy for my own future children. If nothing else, Emma is a great role model for little girls!
singinglight's review against another edition
5.0
A beautifully written, bittersweet little book. I’m still puzzling over whether it’s meant to be a children’s book or not, but in the end it’s just good, so I don’t know that it really matters. [Sep. 2010]
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