Worlds collide in a spectacular way when Newbery and National Book
Award finalist Kathi Appelt and Pulitzer Prize nominee and #1 New York
Times bestseller Alison McGhee team up to create a fantastical,
heartbreaking, and gorgeous tale about two sisters, a fox cub, and what
happens when one of the sisters disappears forever.
Sylvie and Jules, Jules and Sylvie. Better than just sisters, better
than best friends, they'd be identical twins if only they'd been born in
the same year. And if only Sylvie wasn't such a fast--faster than
fast--runner. But Sylvie is too fast, and when she runs to the river
they're not supposed to go anywhere near to throw a wish rock just
before the school bus comes on a snowy morning, she runs so fast that no
one sees what happens...and no one ever sees her again. Jules is
devastated, but she refuses to believe what all the others believe,
that--like their mother--her sister is gone forever.
At the very same time, in the shadow world, a shadow fox is born--half
of the spirit world, half of the animal world. She too is fast--faster
than fast--and she senses danger. She's too young to know exactly what
she senses, but she knows something is very wrong. And when Jules
believes one last wish rock for Sylvie needs to be thrown into the
river, the human and shadow worlds collide.
Writing in alternate voices--one Jules's, the other the fox's--Kathi
Appelt and Alison McGhee tell the searingly beautiful tale of one small
family's moment of heartbreak, a moment that unfolds into one that is
epic, mythic, shimmering, and most of all, hopeful.