The afternoon of the day before her fourteenth birthday, Beatriz comes home from school to find her parents missing without a trace. After a brief, futile search, she is shipped off from her home in Des Moines to her uncle’s New York apartment, where she finds a portal to a peculiar magical land, and the starting point of an even more peculiar journey. Beatriz forms unlikely friendships with Death, a family of people with wings, assorted innkeepers, and two nameless orphans. After hair-raising encounters with a malevolent witch and her unpleasant assistants, Beatriz discovers that she has been much closer to home—and to her parents—than she initially believed. With writing rich in wordplay, literary allusions, and deadpan humor, Gordon Smith’s imaginative novel introduces an original fantasy world and its resourceful visitor. Perfect for readers who love stranger-in-a-strange-land classics like The Phantom Tollbooth and Alice in Wonderland, this enchanting story is certain to earn a new place of favor on their shelves. Read Less