The time by the lake is everything perfect about a childhood summer…and maybe it also holds the answers Max needs. Give this tender middle grade novel to readers who love the mystery, friendships, and touches of magic in novels by Rebecca Stead and Laurel Snyder!
To get Max and Rosie’s minds off their mother’s mysterious disappearance, their grandmother, Mozelle, suggests that they visit the old log cabin where their mom spent her summers as a child. This is a place where, when it gets dark, you go to bed. But according to Mozelle, their mother had her happiest dreams during her nights at the lake.
That first night, Max and Rosie travel in their dreams to an almost impossibly beautiful place where they meet a wonderful new group of friends. But was it really just a dream? Or is there something extraordinary and magical about this compound by the lake?
As Max slowly grasps what is really going on, he wonders if he might have found the key to the mystery of his mother’s disappearance―and how to bring her safely home.
Can a dream from the past solve a mystery in the present?
- Missing Mother Mystery: Max and Rosie’s mom is gone, leaving only a cryptic message. The key to finding her might not be in the world they know.
- Cabin in the Woods: An old log cabin with no electricity, where bedtime comes when the sun goes down and a mysterious ‘second sleep’ begins.
- Contemporary Fantasy: A shared dream world where the lake comes alive with kids from the past―a place that feels more real than it has any right to.
- Coming of Age: A heartfelt journey where twelve-year-old Max must solve the puzzle of his mom’s past to protect his family’s future.
Diane Stanely is the author and illustrator of beloved books for young readers, including The Silver Bowl, named a best book of the year by Kirkus Reviews and an ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice; The Cup and the Crown; The Princess of Cortova; Saving Sky, winner of the Arab American Book Award; Bella at Midnight, a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and an ALA Booklist Editors’ Choice; The Mysterious Case of the Allbright Academy; The Mysterious Matter of I. M. Fine; The Chosen Prince; and Joplin, Wishing.
Ms. Stanley has written and illustrated numerous picture books, including three creatively reimagined fairy tales, The Giant and the Beanstalk, Goldie and the Three Bears, and Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter, and an award-winning series of picture book biographies. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can visit her online at www.dianestanley.com.
