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A seemingly ordinary village has very curious happenings in this magical realism upper-middle grade novel.
Before the wayfaring Adam arrived in the small village, his grandfather apprised him that the place was, "Like a beacon of hope...That small, quiet village where nothing much ever happens. Where you'll want for nothing, and ordinary people live ordinary lives." The village welcomed him instantly, after all it's not every day that someone new visits. The families of ten-year-old Jacob and his best friend, fourteen-year-old Sabrina, put Adam up in an abandoned house and make him the guest of honor at a lamb roast.
Nineteen-year-old Belle and her best friend Donna are contentedly predictable, eating their sack lunches each day on the porch steps of Grandpa and Grandma's house-who are not actually their grandparents but all the villagers call them that. Amanda, nearly the same age as Adam, tells the newcomer, "I kind of think of this place like a book. Everyone's their own main character in their own stories, and supporting cast in everyone else's stories...I honestly haven't seen much more of the world than what this place has to offer, but I love it here so much, why would I ever want to leave?"
Young Jacob and Sabrina enjoy spending their days together on little adventures, often walking the long path to what Jacob calls the "inconvenience store" due to its distance, and the old abandoned and dilapidated train station which, inexplicably, contains a perfectly working vending machine-no one knew who put it there, who filled it, or who maintained it-where they would enjoy a soda together.
When a disastrous storm wreaks havoc in the village, tragedy ensues and grief, loss, and uncertainty fill the village. With some moving on from the hamlet, needing to carve their own path, the rest are left wondering what the future will bring and how long it will be until the village returns to its ordinary, quiet place once again.
A masterful literary work for upper middle-graders, steeped with subtle threads of magic in the mundane, creating a seemingly ordinary tale with extraordinary details, In a Small, Quiet Village (Where Nothing Much Ever Happens) is the first title in the Cities & Villages saga.
