Today’s episode is with middle grade author, Kate Albus. The Read to Write Kidlit book club read Nothing Else But Miracles this month. We read closely to notice what Kate Albus did to bring us in to her story and then asked her questions about writing craft. Our goal is to learn more about writing craft through discussions with each other, our reading, and our discussion with the author. We hope you also learn more about writing after this podcast.
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Music credits: Will Saulnier
About Kate
Kate Albus is the author of two historical fiction middle grade novels, A Place to Hang the Moon and Nothing Else but Miracles.
Visit her website, follow her Twitter and Instagram.
Nothing Else But Miracles
“Rich in New York City period detail and era-specific colloquialisms, the briskly moving telling succeeds in its well-executed combination of classic plot elements, sympathetic characters and community, and anxiety-provoking uncertainties, while parenthetical asides to readers create a deepening sense of engagement and intimacy with the Byrne family.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“The story is both grounded in reality and embellished with entertaining exploits, keeping readers excited about Dory’s experiences as she holds her family together and they await their papa. . . . An absorbing tale about urban life on the World War II homefront.”—Kirkus Reviews
Margaret Ferguson Books at Holiday House
12-year-old Dory Byrne lives with her brothers on New York City’s Lower East Side, waiting impatiently through the darkest hours of World War II for her pop to come home from fighting Hitler. Legally speaking, Dory’s brother, Fish, isn’t old enough to be in charge of Dory and her younger brother, Pike, but the neighborhood knows the score and, like Pop always says, “the neighborhood will give you what you need.” There’s the lady from the bakery, who saves them leftover crullers. The kind landlord who checks in on them. And every Thursday night, the Byrnes enjoy a free bowl of seafood stew at Mr. Caputo’s restaurant. Which is where Dory learns about the hand-pulled elevator that is the only way to get to Caputo’s upper floors. The elevator that’s so creaky and ancient, nobody’s been in it for decades.
Until now.
The Byrnes’ landlord dies unexpectedly and the new one is anything but kind. When he catches on about Pop being gone, he turns the Byrnes in, hoping they’ll be shipped off to an orphanage. Dory and her brothers need a hideout, and suddenly the elevator and the abandoned hotel it leads to provide just the solution they need.
Based on a very real place in old New York and steeped in the history of the last year of World War II, Nothing Else but Miracles shows how, when things get tough, the neighborhood really will give you what you need… and may even offer up a miracle or two in the process.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Looking Ahead
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S1 E2: Kate Albus and Nothing Else But Miracles