Marta reads a letter from her father, who she and her mother have not heard from and don’t know his whereabouts. He tells her, “war destroys everything, always. That is the intent, its only intent. If anyone tries to explain it to you otherwise, in some other way, in words of nobility or valor, do not believe them”. He then refers to God’s creation as “this terrible world”. Later we hear that a general “wept because of the evil he was responsible for”. There is no question that war is an ugly thing, a huge representation of the culmination of the sin that is the core problem of this world. But presenting a vastly oversimplified and unfair comment like this is a super surprising and unfortunate addition to put in front of young readers.

The stories that are supposed to feel “magical” often come across as odd. The story feels very “this worldly”, but then next thing you know the young reader is told in total seriousness that a parrot from the story used to be a man who was a military general. How did he become this way? Well, we find out he was mean to a woman who was a witch… before being sold to a circus. Later, Marta is simply looking over the roof of the hotel and what does she see… herself with her mother and (still missing) father. At one point a woman seems to be able to read Marta’s mind, responding to something she only thought. While this is not the most concerning content ever, we do want parents to understand the “feel” of the story.

One story addition that is very concerning appears later as the book goes on. A nun who has walked out of her life at a convent, without any reasoning or rational explanation provided, later walks out on her husband without saying a word to him… all while pregnant. This again happens with no “justification” as if it is the most natural thing in the world.

Marta meets the bellman Norman. She tells him she is not supposed to talk with anyone. He responds, “Of course, we have not spoken”, in a sort of dishonest/mischievous way, and then proceeds to carry on a conversation with her. She proceeds to lie to Norman, seemingly without reason. She frequently disobeys and is dishonest to her mother. At one critical time she keeps huge events from her, justifying it by saying, “Something very important was happening – something that her mother was too tired, too helpless, to understand”.

A couple other items to be aware of:

One illustration shows a couple people smoking a pipe.

At one point the book says, “Marta felt as if someone had reached inside of her and pulled her heart from her chest”.