Splendors and Glooms

Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick Press, 2012) is a Gothic novel for young adult readers that follows three children on their individual journeys through grief to find love. The book was a New York Times best seller and received the 2013 Newbery Honor award for excellence in children’s literature. Schlitz has penned numerous award-winning books for middle graders and young adults, including The Hired Girl (Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction) and Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! (Newbery Medal). She has spent most of her career working as a librarian and storyteller, and she currently works as lower-school librarian at the Park School in Baltimore, MD. Schlitz graduated from Goucher College in 1977.

This guide follows the 2012 first edition of Splendors and Glooms.

Plot Summary

Splendors and Glooms revolves around rich girl Clara Wintermute and orphans Lizzie Rose and Parsefall as the three struggle to escape the decades-old feud between a puppet master and the woman he scorned. Seven years before the story begins, Clara lost her four siblings to cholera. Her home has been in mourning ever since, and Clara lives in the shadow of her lost siblings, feeling unloved by her grieving mother and distant father.