By Larissa Page
Secrets of the Hotel Maisonneuve is a middle-grade adventure story focusing on the worst summer of Jacob Jollimore’s life. His father has lost his job and his family has moved into an Edwardian hotel to renovate it. While on one of his errands for his father, he is chased by a bully and ends up knocking over and injuring an elderly Vietnamese woman. His parents then decide he will help her every afternoon as she heals. No friends, no fun—just an old hotel and an elderly lady who “hates” him.
That is until he finds the first clue to a scavenger hunt set out by a boy who lived in the hotel 100 years ago. In amongst his helping, chores, and work, Jacob starts solving and finding many of the clues and gifts Elliott had left a century ago. Through the story, Jacob grows to learn about the culture he was adopted from, why some people act and bully the way they do, and he comes to learn about responsibilities.
I really enjoyed the adventure side of this book, the clues and the hunt, and the puzzles. I also enjoyed that it was included within the normal day-to-day life of this 13-year-old boy who had responsibilities to his family and to helping Mrs. Nguyen. It gave the sense that adventure can be found in and around the life you’re already living, which I think is a good lesson for those reading middle-grade novels.
I also appreciated the narrative around immigration and learning and sharing of one’s culture. Jacob was an adopted child from Vietnam but has little knowledge of his culture. He learns more as he gets to know Mrs. Nguyen, once the animosity is gone. I even think the animosity itself is well done; sometimes we need to understand or be reminded that we still have responsibilities and have to complete them even if we are not outwardly appreciated or liked for them. I found both of these issues to be written in an appropriate way for the audience. Especially once we learn why Mrs. Nguyen feels the way she does—as it is not 100 percent about Jacob, it is also not always 100 percent about us.
In that same vein, we are also briefly shown both sides of the issue of bullying in this story. While Jacob does put a stop to it, he also is shown enough to give him empathy for another person, which doesn’t excuse the bully’s behaviour, but again, gives Jacob the understand that it wasn’t necessarily about him.
This type of story with action, adventure, and puzzles is just the type of story my eight-year-old loves to read. I am excited to share this story with her soon as I believe it is sensitive and approaches the heavier topics very well while also giving some tidbits of wisdom at the perfect level for its readers.