The Book of Story Beginnings
Candlewick Press, 2006
AWARDS
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Oscar Martin was fourteen when he mysteriously disappeared from his Iowa farmhouse in 1914. His sister claimed Oscar had rowed out to sea—but how was that possible? Nearly a century later, when Lucy Martin moves with her parents to that same Iowa farmhouse, she discovers the strange and dangerous Book of Story Beginnings, and soon Oscar himself reappears in a bizarre turn of events that sends the two distant relatives on a perilous journey.
"Accented by a fine description of an ocean magically appearing in the Iowa countryside, Kladstrup's first novel offers mystery, adventure, and fantasy, as well as reflections on family dynamics, time travel, and the structure of stories." --Booklist "The characters are well rounded and interesting, and Oscar's plight ... is sympathetically and realistically portrayed.... an interesting investigation into the power of writing and story, along with a warm and believable look at the relationship of two young people from different eras who become family to one another." --School Library Journal |
The Idea Behind the Story
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The idea for The Book of Story Beginnings started with the house in Iowa where my mother grew up. Then there was a recurring dream I’d had over the years, in which I found a forgotten birdcage in my own house. I developed the bird idea into a short animated film: a girl finds a birdcage in her attic, and the bird flies out the window. Not much plot there, but one day, I decided to pretend I was the main character in a story. I named myself Lucy and started writing down what I pretended was happening to me. I began to accumulate other characters and chapters and a story with a rather complicated plot. Many, many revisions later, I had a manuscript for a novel.
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