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    The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt
    The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt
    The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt
    Ebook125 pages1 hour

    The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt

    By Patricia MacLachlan

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    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 25, 2013
    ISBN9780062285737
    The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt
    Author

    Patricia MacLachlan

    Patricia MacLachlan (1938–2022) was the author of many well-loved novels and picture books, including Sarah, Plain and Tall, winner of the Newbery Medal; its sequels, Skylark and Caleb’s Story; Edward’s Eyes; The True Gift; Waiting for the Magic; White Fur Flying; Fly Away; and Snow Horses. She lived in western Massachusetts.

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    • 5/5
      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. From Amazon
    • 4/5
      With my recent reading of MacLachlan's Waiting for the Magic, this author is fast becoming one of my favorites. I found this older book of hers, and devoured it in one evening. The city setting and tone reminded me of some of Madeleine L'Engle's books and of Anastasia Krupnik, by Lois Lowry. Minna, an accomplished cellist at 11, lives with her brother and rather eccentric parents. Her mother, a writer, tacks strange (to Minna) phrases above her typewriter. The hardest one for Minna to understand is: "Fact and Fiction are different truths." How can fiction be truth? thinks the literal-minded girl. Then she meets Lucas, a new member of her music group, who plays the viola, and has very orderly, calm parents. Over the course of several months, Minna learns facts and fictions about herself and her family. The novel is at times, drily humorous, warm, and thoughtful, my favorite type of writing. Minna has a good, strong relationship with her one year younger brother, McGrew (what an unusal name!), who puts everything to song, driving his teachers crazy, but delighting friends and family. This makes me think about the habits of some kids at school, and how they may be annoying in a school environment, but appreciated at home. I love all the other characters, too: Minna's music instructor, Porch, who loves Mozart; Willie, the street player who always returns Minna's donations; her psychologist father, who is gentle; her mother, so focused on her writing; Lucas' housekeeper, Twig (what a great name!), a crazy driver and briliant cook who keeps Lucas' secret (frogs in his bedroom); Emily Parmalee, the catcher on McGrew's baseball team. Here are some of my favorite quotes: FACT AND FICTION ARE DIFFERENT TRUTHS "Think about the music, not just the notes." Porch to students, p. 83; also THINK ABOUT THE STORY, NOT JUST THE WORDS "Outside it was overcast, with a light that softened them all." p.107 - "softened" is a perfect description "Dog falls into her lap in a heap of love." p. 108The ending is perfect!
    • 3/5
      I snagged this MacLachlan book from a BookCrossing bookshelf at my local coffee house, looking forward to an easy read between my more "grown-up" novels. In my opinion, The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt is an unusual book. For young readers unfamiliar with music, understanding and enjoying the short novel may be difficult. Even with 7 years as a musician under my belt, I felt a bit intimidated by the book. With numerous references to famous composers and an extensive musical vocabulary, the charming characters may not make up for the interest-specific plot and writing style. What's more, I often felt unnerved while reading, but am not sure if this is because of Minna's own disconnected personality, or MacLachlan's writing style. Would I suggest this book to a young musician? Definintely. To my little brother or sister? Probably not.
    • 4/5
      I picked it up from the children's section at the Williamsburg Library Book Sale on Sunday, thinking that it would be a Christmas present for a friend, but I fell in love with it and don't want to give it up. (Sorry, Rach! You'll get something else wonderful!) Minna's family is really strange: her mother's a writer and never asks her normal questions like "How was your day?" Instead, she gets questions like "What is the quality of beauty?" She longs for a normal family, maybe one like Lucas's, the cute new viola player at the conservatory with a gorgeous vibratto (and no, that's not a euphamism). The usual sequence of growing up and coming to terms with life events happen, but it's the language and wordplay that makes this such a wonderful and lyrical book:Minna looks out the bus window and thinks about her life. Her one life. She likes artichokes and blue fingernail polish and Mozart played too fast. She loves baseball, and the month of March because no one else much likes March, and every shade of brown she has ever seen. But this is only one life. Someday, she knows, she will have another life. A different one. A better one. McGrew knows this too. McGrew is ten years old. He knows nearly everything. He knows, for instance, that his older sister, Minna Pratt, age eleven, is sitting patiently next to her cello waiting to be a woman.This was the passage that convinced me to take the book home, and it was well worth it.

    Book preview

    The Facts and Fictions of Minna Pratt - Patricia MacLachlan

    ONE

    Melinda Pratt rides city bus number twelve to her cello lesson, wearing her mother’s jean jacket and only one sock. Hallo, world, says Minna. Minna often addresses the world, sometimes silently, sometimes out loud. Bus number twelve is her favorite place for watching, inside and out. The bus passes cars and bicycles and people walking dogs. It passes store windows, and every so often Minna sees her face reflection, two dark eyes in a face as pale as a winter dawn. There are fourteen people on the bus today. Minna stands up to count them. She likes to count people, telephone poles, hats, umbrellas, and, lately, earrings. One girl, sitting directly in front of Minna, has seven earrings, five in one ear. She has wisps of dyed green hair that lie like forsythia buds against her neck.

    There are, Minna knows, a king, a past president of the United States, and a beauty queen on the bus. Minna can tell by looking. The king yawns and scratches his ear with his little finger. Scratches, not picks. The beauty queen sleeps, her mouth open, her hair the color of tomatoes not yet ripe. The past president of the United States reads Teen Love and Body Builder’s Annual.

    Next to Minna, leaning against the seat, is her cello in its zippered canvas case. Next to her cello is her younger brother, McGrew, who is humming. McGrew always hums. Sometimes he hums sentences, though most often it comes out like singing. McGrew’s teachers do not enjoy McGrew answering questions in hums or song. Neither does the school principal, Mr. Ripley. McGrew spends lots of time sitting on the bench outside Mr. Ripley’s office, humming.

    Today McGrew is humming the newspaper. First the headlines, then the sports section, then the comics. McGrew only laughs at the headlines.

    Minna smiles at her brother. He is small and stocky and compact like a suitcase. Minna loves him. McGrew always tells the truth, even when he shouldn’t. He is kind. And he lends Minna money from the coffee jar he keeps beneath his mattress.

    Minna looks out the bus window and thinks about her life. Her one life. She likes artichokes and blue fingernail polish and Mozart played too fast. She loves baseball, and the month of March because no one else much likes March, and every shade of brown she has ever seen. But this is only one life. Someday, she knows, she will have another life. A different one. A better one. McGrew knows this, too. McGrew is ten years old. He knows nearly everything. He knows, for instance, that his older sister, Minna Pratt, age eleven, is sitting patiently next to her cello waiting to be a woman.

    Unclothed Woman Flees from Standard Poodle, sang McGrew, reading the headlines. Boa Constrictor Lives in Nun’s Sewing Basket. Sit down, Minna Pratt, he sang on.

    Hush up, McGrew, said Minna. A mysterious woman just got on the bus. Number fifteen.

    Mysterious how? sang McGrew, ending on a high note just above his range.

    A fur cape, gray braids, one earring, said Minna. That makes seventeen earrings total on this bus.

    Emily Parmalee just got her ears pierced, said McGrew in his speaking voice. She’s meeting us at the bus stop.

    Minna snorted, but not unkindly. Emily Parmalee was the catcher on McGrew’s baseball team. She was, like McGrew, small and squat, with an odd sense of humor. Often she caused Minna to laugh so hard that she had to lie down on sidewalks or crouch in soda shops. Minna smiled, thinking enviously of Emily Parmalee, rushing toward womanhood faster than Minna, her ears already past puberty.

    The bus jolted to a stop and Minna leaned her head against the window and thought about her lesson. Minna never practiced, except for the short times when everyone was out of the house. When no one was there, she could play bad notes without anyone calling out or McGrew humming them in tune as a guide. Minna never needed to practice, really. She could, in the presence of her cello teacher, Mr. Porch, summon up the most glorious notes; pure, in fact, surprising even Minna. She played beautifully for Mr. Porch, mostly because she wanted to make him smile, as somber as he sometimes was. Also, she felt sorry about his name. Porch. Verandah might have been better. Or even Stoop. Porch was a dismal name. For a sometimes dismal man. McGrew called him Old Back.

    Someone pulled the bell cord and it was their stop. McGrew folded his newspaper under his arm, reaching over to the seat across the aisle to snatch The Inquirer, forbidden at home even though it had the best headlines. Minna propped her cello on her hip and pushed through the crowd.

    Pardon. I’m sorry. Excuse.

    The beauty queen woke up, closing her mouth and gathering packages. The past president of the United States put Teen Love and Body Builder’s Annual carefully between the pages of his Atlantic Monthly. The king scratched on.

    Emily Parmalee was at the bus stop with the shirt of her long underwear worn on the outside and brand-new holes in her ears.

    McGrew!

    Emmy!

    They always greeted each other as if they had been lost on the prairie, smiles and exclamation points. A matched pair of luggage, thought Minna.

    Hallo, Emily, said Minna. I like your ears.

    Emily Parmalee grinned.

    I’ll have feathers within the month, she said matter-of-factly.

    Minna pulled her cello up the steps to the conservatory. The sky was gray, with low clouds, like in an old painting.

    I’ll be forty-five minutes today, an hour at the most, Minna called.

    That’s all Old Back can take, said McGrew, sitting down and taking a very black banana out of his jacket pocket.

    On this dismal day Minna Pratt, cellist, climbs the steps to her dismal lesson with her sometimes dismal teacher, Porch. Outside sits McGrew with a dismal banana. And Emily Parmalee, who does not yet have feathers. Dismal is all Minna can think of. A dismal life. But she is wrong. Old Back Porch has a surprise for her. The surprise is not Mozart. The surprise is not dismal. It is Lucas, tall and homely and slim with corn-colored hair. With blue eyes, one that looks off a bit to the side. And with a wonderful vibrato.

    TWO

    Minna paused before the great wooden door of the conservatory and looked up for good luck to where the gargoyles rested, gray and ominous and familiar. Then she pushed open the door and began the walk up the three flights of stairs. There was an elevator, but it was self-service, and Minna had nightmares of being stuck there between floors with no one to talk with, nothing to count. Alone with her cello. Minna, of course, would not practice.

    TV ANNOUNCER: "After three days and two nights of being stranded in an elevator, Minna Booth Pratt has emerged, blinking and looking rested."

    MINNA: [Blinking and looking rested.]

    TV ANNOUNCER: "A record, ladies and gentlemen! Seventy-two hours in an elevator without practicing!"

    [Applause, applause, cheering.]

    Sighing, Minna paused at the first-floor landing to look out the window. Below were McGrew and Emily Parmalee, slumped over like half-filled travel bags, singing. Minna pulled her jacket around her, the chill of the old building numbing her fingers. Far off she heard an oboe playing Ravel, a sound as sad and gray as the building. She walked up the last flight of stairs, slowly, slowly, thinking of yesterday’s lesson. It was Bartók, bowing hand for Bartók staccato; swift, short bows, Porch’s hand on her elbow, forcing her wrist to do the work. When she got it right, he would smile his Bartók smile: there quickly, then gone. It would be early Haydn today. High third finger, she reminded herself, digging her thumbnail into the

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