First published 2000
Muggles lives in the tidy village of Slipper-on-the-Water, where the Minipins follow strict rules about proper behavior and appearance. She refuses to wear the regulation green like everyone else. The village council grows suspicious of Muggles and four other nonconformists who question traditional ways. When the Mushroom people threaten to invade their peaceful valley, the council banishes the five rebels rather than listen to their warnings. Muggles and her companions must survive in the mountains while their former neighbors face danger below. The outcasts discover their differences make them stronger, not weaker. They find courage to defend the very people who rejected them. Muggles learns that being true to herself matters more than fitting in with others.
Genres: fiction, adventure, fantasy
Vibes: thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Slipper-on-the-Water, The Mountains
Period: 20th-century
284 pages · Hardcover · Harcourt Children's Books