Midnight Blue - Hardcover

Fisk, Pauline

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1582348294 ISBN 13: 9781582348292

Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books, 2003

Synopsis

Bonnie, a girl torn between the harsh reality of her mother's weaknesses and her grandmother's strong will escapes her home one day by sneaking into her neighbor's hot air balloon. But instead of flying into the clouds and back down, she lands in another world, something like her own, but both kinder and somehow much more terrifying. She's not sure if she can ever leave this nearly parallel world and return to her own. And if she did, she isn't sure she'll be able to bring back with her the sense of warmth and love she has grown to cherish. Amazingly, she does both.

About this title

About the Author:

Pauline Fisk is the author of many wonderful books for children, including The Secret of Sabrina Fludde. Midnight Blue was her stunning debut novel and is only now available in the US. Her hobbies are walking, thinking, being by the sea, reading, enjoying her family, and music. Pauline lives in Shropshire, England, near the hills where Midnight Blue is set.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 6-9-An enjoyable fantasy that offers food for thought. Bonnie is trapped between the possibility of happiness with her mother and the reality that her controlling grandmother, "Grandbag," will never leave them alone. As Bonnie says, "She sees things, you see, and they have to be hers.- And it's not just things- It's people too. If someone's hers, she'll never let them go-." When Bonnie sees a neighbor blowing up a big, blue hot-air balloon, she tries to sneak aboard and inadvertently takes off alone. When she arrives in the "world beyond the sky," she finds that it looks exactly like her world-same people, same buildings, but with some definite differences- some of them scary. She meets the family she always wanted- her double lives happily with her mother, her father, and a new baby sister. Unfortunately, evil Grandbag's double also arrives in the village and has her sights set on her granddaughter's new family. Bonnie must try to save them, and herself, and in the process finds the courage to return home. The conclusion leaves open the possibility that happy endings do happen, and that just maybe, Bonnie will finally have the peace and happiness she has always longed for. This book is reminiscent of Madeleine L'Engle's "Wrinkle in Time" series, with the characters learning more of themselves in other worlds and translating that knowledge into their everyday lives at home.
Saleena L. Davidson, South Brunswick Public Library, Monmouth Junction, NJ
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Children's Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1582348294
• ISBN 13: 9781582348292
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 250