Seven Stories Up

Seven Stories Up

Juvenile fiction
One of my favorite literary sub genres is stories in which the
protagonist goes back in time to meet a disliked person in her or his
younger years and learn to appreciate or at least understand her or
him. So when I read on the book jacket blurb of Laurel Snyder's Seven
Stories Up that protagonist Annie travels back to 1937 to meet up with
her gandmother nothing could have stopped me from joining her. It was
a journey well worth taking.
As the story begins Annie and her mother travel to the hotel
that her family has owned for decades. Her grandmother is dying. Her
mother is going to say good bye. Annie knows very little about her
mom's mom. She comes face to an angry, bitter woman.
When she wakes up the next morning the room she's in looks
subtly different. A girl with brown eyes and unruly curls is looking
at her and inviting her to stay for breakfast. It's still August 18,
only 50 years earlier. And the grinning girl, Molly, befriending her
is grouchy grammie.
Molly, it turns out, spends much of her time alone in her room
on the hotel's seventh floor. Living with asthma in an age lacking
modern treatments, she's also endured a recent bout with the flu. Her
doctor feels she must be treated as if she's extremely fragile. Her
family obliges. They fly around in their professional and social
orbits, leaving her in what she calls her lonely room.
Molly is thrilled to have someone her age to hang out with. She
has been wishing on stars every night for someone, anyone...so much so
that she isn't bothered in the least to learn that Annie has come to
her from the future. Annie is eager to introduce her to a more
adventurous life style. However,
*Can she do this without getting her sick or hurt or in trouble with
her very strict father?
*Can she do this in a way that won't alter the future, possibly making
her own birth not happen?
*Will she be able to ever get back to her own time and mother--or even
remember them?
Seven Stories Up is a wonderful read for historical fiction
loving kids on two levels. One is that it has a great plot and
believable characters. The other is that, without getting preachy, it
shows the feelings and concerns that motivate its characters in not
always obvious ways. The father who isolates Molly has been told by
the doctor whom he trusts that this is necessary to restore her health.
Interestingly, although Snyder always loved old things, she did
not enjoy studying History. In her mind memorizing dates of major
world events was boring. When she decided to write a story about the
hotel in which her grandmother grew up, she ended up doing a lot of
historical research to get her details right and capture the spirit of
an era that happened before she was born. Because of this need for
research, writing the book took her three years. In my mind that was
time well spent.
On a personal note, in the front of the book there is a wonderful
quote that really got me thinking.
"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until
they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
--Anais Nin
In my experience this is so true about those friendships deep enough
to be authentic. I can see this with my friend Darcie with whom I
journeyed through one of the biggest challenges of her life. I can
see this with my gentle friend Christine whose passion for helping
homeless students touches my heart. I can see this with Leah as we
work to bring my poems and her graphic art together to create our
first book. As for my friend and mentor, Dr. Betsy Webb, I see a
universe and hear the music of the spheres. YOWZA!
A great big shout goes out to people creating, treasuring, and
honoring their precious worlds of friendship.
Julia Emily Hathaway



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