The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt (Charlotte Zolotow Books (Paperback)) - Softcover

MacLachlan, Patricia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0064402657 ISBN 13: 9780064402651

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2002

Synopsis

Minna wishes for many things. She wishes she understood the quote taped above her mother's typewriter:Fact and fiction are different truths. She wishes her mother would stop writing long enough to really listen to her. She wishes her house were peaceful and orderly like her friend Lucas's. Most of all, she wishes she could find a vibrato on her cello and play Mozart the way he deserves to be played.

Minna soon discovers that some things can't be found-they just have to happen. And as she waits for her vibrato to happen, Minna begins to understand some facts and fictions about herself.

About this title

About the Author

Patricia MacLachlan is the celebrated author of many timeless novels for young readers, including Newbery Medal winner Sarah, Plain and Tall; Word After Word After Word; Kindred Souls; The Truth of Me; The Poet’s Dog; and My Father’s Words. She is also the author of countless beloved picture books, a number of which she cowrote with her daughter, Emily. She lives in Williamsburg, Massachusetts.

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-7 Minna Pratt is confused: by life and the nature of love, by Mozart and her struggles to play the cello, and by the quotes her writer-mother tapes over her desk, such as ``Fact and Fiction are Different Truths.'' Minna wants everything to follow an orderly pattern like the dinner conversation between her friend Lucas' parents. Through her friendship with Lucas, the newest member of her chamber music group, Minna begins to understand that life is not as simple as she wants it to be. In this book, which recalls Cassie Binegar (1982) more than Sarah, Plain and Tall (1985, both Harper), MacLachlan has written a story of the wistful longings of early adolescents, laced with humor and an uncanny sense of the ordinary, everyday things that make life so special. With the briefest description, she sketches wonderfully memorable characters: Imelda, the violinist who announces obscure facts at odd moments in rehearsal; Lucas' mother, sitting in her solarium thinking up dinner conversation topics; and Minna's brother McGrew, who likes to sing the headlines from the daily paper. The twin themes of writing and music provide an unobtrusive metaphor for Minna's search for order in her world, and provide interesting layers in the writing for perceptive readers. In the end, it is very much a book about that personal tug of war that begins in early adolescence between dependence on one's parents' approval and the need to become one's own person. As such, it will have great appeal for young readers, and will live on in the memory the way the strains of a melody live on after a concert. Connie C. Rockman, The Ferguson Library, Stamford, Conn.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0064402657
• ISBN 13: 9780064402651
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144