THE BOY, THE CLOUD AND THE VERY TALL TALE

A boy must thwart a dreadful scheme to separate people from their memories.

Eleven-year-old Ewan’s grief is so contained that he hasn’t cried in years despite losing both of his parents. His mother, who built the house they had lived in, died when he was 7; his father disappeared when Ewan was 9. Resolved to find his father—who was taken away by a cloud according to Grumple, the grandfather Ewan and his sister now live with—Ewan sets out on a journey up the Newfoundland coast to the place his father spent childhood summers. He’s joined by his irrepressible 7-year-old sister, Flora, and Mr. So-and-So, an unusual purveyor of notions who wields unpredictable magic. Smith deftly avoids being twee, employing rich, alliterative language and contrasting amusing fantasy elements with Ewan’s stolidity. That he carries a burden of grief and sorrow that he can’t easily release comes across in subtle details. The characters all read white; the post–World War I setting of fishing villages and farms is revealed in small details about clothing, transportation, and songs. Just as Ewan finds insights into his sadness, he is confronted by the discovery that darker forces are at work. The story is reminiscent of Richard Kennedy and Kate DiCamillo in its mixture of strong, somewhat eccentric fantasy elements and confrontation of sorrow.

Complex and memorable.