Windswept

Description

From Newbery Honor-winner Margi Preus, a gripping middle-grade fantasy about a girl who must save the children of her world from being "windswept" In Tag's world, children under the age of 15 are kept locked indoors. Those who do venture Outside are windswept-disappearing in the midst of snow squalls-Tag's sisters among them. Many have tried to find the lost children; all have failed. And since the Other Times, the Powers That Be seem strangely intent to keep it that way.All that remains from those Other Times are snippets of songs, way too much plastic trash, and a few forbidden books-including the fairy tales Tag stumbles upon. That book, a mysterious invitation, and a possibly magic hair ribbon set Tag and an unlikely crew of "youngers" on a perilous quest to find their windswept siblings. To save their future they must face invisible pursuers, various bewitchments, and ravenously hungry trolls, and, at every turn, risk being windswept themselves.

Margi Preus is a New York Times bestselling author of the Newbery Honor Book Heart of a Samurai and other notable books for young readers, including West of the Moon, Shadow on the Mountain, and Village of Scoundrels. She lives in Duluth, MN, land of snow squalls and cardamom buns.

**STARRED REVIEW** "Her hypnotic writing will tug at readers' hearts and keep them mesmerized. Veve's illustrations and maps add interest and enhance the text. This must-read grand adventure with unlikely heroes will appeal to all fantasy lovers." --School Library Journal **STARRED REVIEW** "Inspired primarily by the Norwegian fairy tale "The Three Princesses in the Mountain Blue," this edgy, somewhat dystopian tale set in a world where race holds no significance masterfully blends European fairy-tale motifs with timely warnings about human greed, waste, and destructiveness while extoling the power of storytelling. . . An inventive, memorable must-read." --Kirkus Reviews **STARRED REVIEW** "The tone here is pitch-perfect, capturing that particular fairy-tale flavor of the absurd mingling with the deeply serious; slapstick alongside real suspense; and language being bent, re-purposed, and enjoyed for its own deliciousness."--The Horn Book Magazine "Preus grounds the fantasy by detailing the skewed reality of Tag's everyday life before leaving home and by keeping her thoughts and emotions at the forefront during her journey. . . An engaging adventure story well suited to reading aloud."--Booklist "Via sensate prose (outside "tasted sweet and spicy and slightly dangerous") and jam-packed worldbuilding that borrows from Norwegian fairy tales, Preus smartly employs the fairy tale form to investigate ethics around avarice, exploitation, and communal priority."--Publishers Weekly "Windswept is a pure delight. Tag's story is one of our past and future--and the ways that stories can shape our destiny. I loved every moment."--Jonathan Auxier, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Gardener and Sweep