Reading Time: 1 Min.
Cover illustration for “The Frindle Files.”Credit…Brian Selznick There’s a moment in early childhood when pure, wide-eyed wonder turns into a new kind of curiosity. One day a 3-year-old is perfectly content knowing that the sky is blue, and then all of a sudden they desperately need to know why. Case in point: Marcelo, the inquisitive hero of Ruth Rocha’s MARCELO, MARTELLO, MARSHMALLOW (Tapioca Stories, 40 pp., $19.95, ages 8 to 12) , translated from the Portuguese by Tal Goldfajn. He’s got many questions — “Why does the rain fall?” “Why do dogs have four legs?” — and his preoccupied parents are becoming annoyed. Woe unto them. Marcelo is just getting started. From “Marcelo, Martello, Marshmallow.”Credit…Ana Matsusaki Soon he is disputing the origins of words: Why is his name Marcelo? Why not Martello? Or Marshmallow? Why is a table called a table and not a chair? When his weary father tries to explain that table derives from Latin, Marcelo is dubious. “Really, Papa, from Latin?” he muses. “Is Latin made of gelatin?” The solution to these conundrums is obvious to this amateur etymologist: He must create words that make sense. From now on, chair will be “seater,” pillow “ headow” and milk (why not?) “cow juice.” But what is inventive and useful in theory (in the spirit of Esperanto!) is disorienting and confusing in practice. As Marcelo’s expressions proliferate and become more original, they also become less comprehensible. After a cigarette sails over the fence around the family’s yard, Marcelo rushes inside shouting, “The dogstayer, Papa, it’s blastflaming!” Since Marcelo’s father has no idea what his son is saying, their pet’s doghouse is reduced to an “ashroom.” From “Marcelo, Martello, Marshmallow.”Credit…Ana Matsusaki Does Marcelo see the folly of a language only he understands? No. The lesson seems to be that Mom and Dad need to improve their Marcelo-ese. If this sounds a bit unfair, an amusing epilogue hints that the tables (so to speak) have turned. Time has passed and a grown-up Marcelo, reading a book, is interrupted by his 7-year-old daughter. She has an ominously familiar question about the […]
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