Tag: J. Kasper Kramer

The List of Unspeakable Fears, mglit realistic fiction with an aurora

Capturing age-appropriate dread is challenging. If the product is too dark it won’t be attractive and if it’s too bright then it loses its street-cred amongst middle school audiences. Sometimes campy creeps aren’t what that age wants. J. Kasper Kramer’s other book that we read, The Story That Cannot Be Told lived like a parallel, fairy-free version of Pan’s Labyrinth. About the only thing, those two held in common was a narrative where the background played second fiddle to an incredibly compelling personal story. The List of Unspeakable Fears hits some of the same targets but sets its focused sights on the Typhoid outbreak. Raise your hand if you want to read about Typhoid Mary and North Brother Island.

I didn’t want to either and that’s the brilliance of the way that Kramer weaves the story.

Part mystery, life, ghost and coming of age story

The Story That Cannot Be Told, deep fable for middle school readers

The Story That Cannot Be Told gives you the illusion of a very deceiving premise. It’s about Ileana, a young girl in communist Romania in WWII who has been sent to stay with her grandparents in the mountains. What’s surprising is that the book doesn’t focus on what you think it will. Instead, its story is all about telling stories and family. The result is a book that’s part fairy tale, historical snap shot, mythology and fictional story that feels real.

The Story That Cannot Be Told is a fascinating ‘story’ book for middle school readers
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