Part of Wayward Children, book 3
First published 2018
Rini plummets into the pond at Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children with a mission that seems impossible. She needs to save her mother Sumi, but there's one problem: Sumi died years before Rini was conceived. This third book in McGuire's Wayward Children series brings readers back to the magical boarding school where children who survived fantasy adventures learn to live in the ordinary world again. Rini faces a deadline that goes beyond urgency. If she fails to restore her mother to life, she will never have existed at all. Reality itself threatens to erase her from a world without magic. The students at Eleanor West's school know about impossible quests, though. They understand what it means to fight for worlds that others can't see. Rini's desperate mission becomes a story about friendship and courage, filled with baking and adventure in equal measure.
Genres: adventure, coming-of-age, fantasy, magical-realism, young-adult
Vibes: bittersweet, emotional, hopeful, intimate, whimsical
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family, magical-portal, time-pressure
Setting: Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, the pond
174 pages · Hardcover · tor.com
Content warnings: death