Fiction (8-12)

Foreword by Gregory Maguire. A pair of siblings, Eddy and Eleanor Hall, hunt for treasures as they try to save their ramshackle home from being repossessed by the bank. A piece of glass shaped like a diamond, embedded in an attic window, is the key to a series of dreams in which secrets are slowly revealed, and a way forward promised. The diamond’s refraction of light is the equivalent of the wardrobe crossing to Narnia, or the tornado express to Oz. The moonlight over Concord sifts through the diamond’s surfaces and the spell it casts interrupts the tedious worry of real life, ushering Eleanor and Eddy into elegant and shivery dream adventures of increasing peril.

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#97 of the Top 100 Children’s Novels of all Time Poll (2012) by School Library Journal, even though out-of-print for decades! “It is to this book that I credit my own belief in the capacity of fiction to enlarge, enlighten, enliven. It remains one of the most important books in my reading life—it showed me what books could do. It made me want to become a writer, too.” —Gregory Maguire, best-selling author of WICKED “Magic in Concord, Massachusetts.  Plus Emerson and Thoreau.  This book (and its sequels) struck a deep chord in me early on.” –Anne Nesbet, author “Reminiscent in structure of Alice In Wonderland, it gives full vent to fantasy in following the escapades of Eddy and Eleanor in a world of dreams and nightmares. …there is much to be said in praise of Miss Langton’s imagery. The attempt to weave New England history into the main fabric—to incorporate Thoreau’s and Emerson’s ideas, is fascinating.” —Kirkus Reviews