The Volume of Possible Endings

Gr 4–7—Twelve-year-old Dorrity leads a quiet, peaceful life as the only child in Owl Town, until the day she unearths a magical book with five possible conclusions. None of the endings seem to make sense, but all of them are disconcerting, and all point to her. When her older brothers disappear and their backgrounds come into question, Dorrity begins to question everything and everyone she has known in her short life. Meanwhile, King Jasper's experiment, a clockwork boy named Metalboy, escapes from his workshop and turns up in Owl Town. No longer sure whom she can trust, Dorrity befriends the somewhat clueless Metalboy, who is in peril because the king's magical feather accidentally lodged itself behind his heart. Running for their lives, the unlikely duo must escape a multitude of pursuers, including anarchists on motorbikes, half-bird/half-human villains, and (possibly) her brothers turned bear and goat. Throughout the myriad of twists and turns, each of the possible endings comes to fruition in one way or another, but the final outcomes aren't realized until the satisfying conclusion. Fans of Fontania will relish this latest installment, while new readers will have no difficulty jumping in, as the title stands alone.