The Edge of in Between by Lorelei Savaryn ISBN 9780593202098, 0593202090 instant download

The Edge of in Between by Lorelei Savaryn ISBN 9780593202098, 0593202090 instant download

A spellbinding tale of magical realism and superb, twisty retelling of The Secret Garden , where twelve-year-old Lottie’s colorful world turns suddenly gray when an unexpected accident claims her parents, and she is uprooted from her home to live with an eccentric uncle she never knew she had—on the border that separates the living and the dead.

Lottie lives in Vivelle—the heart of a vibrant city where life exists in brilliant technicolor and nearly everyone has magic. And Lottie is no exception; she can paint pictures to life in every shade and hue imaginable. But at the sudden loss of her parents, all the color is stripped from Lottie’s heart and the world around her. Taken in by her reclusive, eccentric uncle, Lottie moves into Forsaken, his vast manor located in the gray wasteland between the Land of the Living and Ever After, the land of the dead.

The discovery of a locked-up garden, a wise cardinal, a hidden boy, and a family whose world is full of color despite the bleakness around them begins to pull at the threads of what it means to live in such a near-dead place, slowly returning some of the color to Lottie’s private world and giving her hope that life is worth experiencing fully, even while one carries sorrow.

But as time runs out, Lottie must find a way to thaw both the world and the hearts of her uncle, cousin, and those she has come to know and love in her new home, or all of Forsaken—including Lottie herself—will be absorbed by Ever After long before their time.

An exquisitely written, richly imagined, stunning portrait of love and loss, magic and hope; a true celebration of the strength we all possess to transcend tragedy—and the gifts that make life worth living.

Praise for The Edge of In Between :

“A lyrical, graceful conjuring of the landscape of grief [that] doesn't just reimagine a children's classic, but does it with great love.”—Jacqueline West, author of The Books of Elsewhere series and Long Lost

“Brilliant and empowering…a book that belongs in the hands of every middle-grade reader.” —Lindsay Currie, author of *What Lives in the Woods

• "Richly layered with emotional truths, The Edge of In Between embraces all the fragile elements of grief and sorrow, hope and love—as well as the strength (so very much like magic) that resides inside us all." —Heather Kassner, author of The Plentiful Darkness

Gr 3–7—An odd mix of magic and grief therapy that is partially a homage to The Secret Garden, this is a tale of a place where the location's names match their spirit; Vivelle, Forsaken, In Between, and Ever After. In the beginning, Lottie lives in the lively colorful world of Vivelle working her painting magic with vibrant colors, happy and loved. When her parents die in an accident, she loses that magic and is suddenly a Living Gray. She's sent to Forsaken to stay with an uncle who uses his magic to search for his dead wife and perhaps Lottie's parents. As she moves to the In Between, Lottie discovers companions and friends who help her revive a hidden garden and some of her colorful magic (which, of course, helps her cope with her grief). The symbolism is so heavily laid on with the florid prose that no one could possibly miss the message. However, the magical properties of each space are well drawn. Lottie and many of the characters she meets are engaging, with villains appropriately evil. VERDICT There is nothing subtle about the writing or the plot, but if your fans of magical universes and hidden gardens are looking for their next book, this will do.—Carol A. Edwards

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  "Sensory and textured...a luminous retelling of The Secret Garden." —Booklist, starred review

  
  


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  "With vivid prose, Savaryn delicately captures the achingly real toll of loss through the lens of art while expertly navigating faith and grief’s impact on mental health." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
  

  
  

“A lyrical, graceful conjuring of the landscape of grief [that] doesn't just reimagine a children's classic, but does it with great love.” —Jacqueline West, author of The Books of Elsewhere series and Lost Lost

“Brilliant and empowering…a book that belongs in the hands of every middle-grade reader.” —Lindsay Currie, author of What Lives in the Woods *

"Richly layered with emotional truths, The Edge of In Between embraces all the fragile elements of grief and sorrow, hope and love—as well as the strength (so very much like magic) that resides inside us all." —Heather Kassner, author of* The Plentiful Darkness

Lorelei Savaryn (loreleisavaryn.com) is an author of creepy, magical stories for children. She holds a BA in creative writing and is a former elementary teacher and instructional coach. When she isn't writing, she spends her time amidst the beautiful chaos of life with her husband and four children outside of Chicago. She is also the author of The Circus of Stolen Dreams. You can follow her on Twitter @LoreleiSavaryn.

After dinner, Lottie took down several jars of paint from the shelf along her wall, which she would start with as her base colors. Then she grabbed a fresh palette. She got to work adding in a little here, a little there, mixing them together until she had replicated the colors of the leaf cyclone from outside the treat shop well enough to start.

She quickly fell into a rhythm, first building in the background of the sidewalk and the corner of Felicity’s shop and working forward from there. The magic warmed in her chest and worked its way through her, tying her heart to her hands.

Time slipped by as Lottie worked, as the image on the paper formed and the light outside her window dimmed to dark. She swished a few final strokes, then set the brush down and lifted the painting.

Lottie’s heart leapt inside her as the painted leaves flickered, then fluttered, then swirled in front of her eyes exactly as they had while she waited for her father. She could even catch a hint of the scent of cider emanating out from the enchanted painting, and could hear the low murmur of the late afternoon streets. And, like all of her art, this painting felt exactly like the moment she’d captured. The flurry of the city, the contentment, the comfort of a delightfully predictable afternoon.

A final painting for this season’s collection. She set it down to dry and leaned back in her chair. Warmth flowed through her, pulsing in her fingertips from the use of her magic. Soon enough, she’d fall into a contented sleep.

Lottie pulled herself up and changed into her pajamas before crawling into bed. A few minutes later, her parents stopped by to tuck her in, say their good nights, and give her a kiss on the cheek.

As soon as they left, Lottie pulled a well-­worn book from the shelf next to her headboard: The Enchanted Garden. It had been hers ever since she was a baby, a gift from her mother, and was a bedtime story favorite. The deep green cover and golden lettering winked in the light from her bedside lamp. She cracked the weary spine open and reveled in the bright illustrations. Then she read, for the hundredth, or maybe even the thousandth, time, the story of a magical garden that grew wild and free, spilling over its stone walls and spreading throughout the whole entire world. A garden that gave magical gifts and healed broken hearts.

The book started with a riddle, one Lottie didn’t fully understand. The gray words were printed in large angled letters on the center of the first page and were surrounded by an illustration of a desolate gray stone wall. Leafless gray ivy crept across the stone at all angles and nearly hid the wall behind it. It was all very strange for a book with life and color bursting from all the other pictures.

The riddle read:

There once was a door that wasn’t a door,

And a bed that wasn’t a bed.

Where mossy green carpet shot up from the floor,

This key with the heart must be ____.

“It’s okay if it takes some time to figure out what things mean,” her mother had said one night when Lottie had asked about it. That had been years ago—­back in the days when they read The Enchanted Garden together as a bedtime story. “Sometimes answers don’t come until you ask the right questions.”

Lottie had nodded and snuggled into her mother’s shoulder.

Truth be told, Lottie had thought about the strange riddle very rarely since, caught up in all the other more important bright and beautiful things she had to do.

Like collecting color. And collect it she did. Lottie collected color in far more than just jars of pigment or on paint-­stained fingers. She looked for it everywhere, gobbling it up in books, and films, and art, and more. She breathed it in and lived it out. She drank it through her eyes. Her magic flowed inside her as easily and fully as the wind wound through the trees.

And she would never, ever let it go.