All the Blue Moons at the Wallace Hotel

A Novel by Phoebe Stone

(Ages 10 and up)

Published by Little, Brown and Company Fall 2000.

(ISBN 0316816450) 198 pages

"All the Blue Moons at the Wallace Hotel is exquisitely written, rich with humor, with vivid details and with poetry. Stone paints with words and steps into her own as a children’s writer to reckon with."
--The Boston Globe

Fiona Hopper lives with her artist mother and little sister, Wallace, in a neglected mansion littered with half-finished statues. Like her name, Wallace is unusual, and she cares very little about what others might think of her. She wears two party dresses at once, dislikes wearing socks, and counts among her friends an elderly woman with an atrium full of exotic birds.

Unlike Wallace, Fiona longs to be accepted by her peers, and more that anything wants to perform in an upcoming dance recital. Fiona practices tirelessly, knowing somehow that she is meant to be a dancer. She can still remember when the house was filled with laughter, music, and parties, and she hopes for her family to emerge from the shadows of an unspoken tragedy. Fiona's family loyalty is tested when Wallace disappears and Fiona risks forgoing the dance audition she has worked so long and so hard to get.

This affecting novel tells the story of three people who learn to be a family again, as Fiona realizes that the things that make her life fall apart are the very things that make it whole.