From the author of Secret Speakers, recipient of a ★ star School Library Journal review.

​

Carli Rockell makes clay handprints on her potting shed wall — one for every year she’s been forgotten. The Devoridges would rather pretend she doesn’t exist. Her brother Devlin calls her Freakeyes. Her one friend is a talking bonsai named Friend. And she’s learned to hide her blue eye from a world that stares.

 

All that changes when the Global School System announces a test run of a mysterious new high-speed bus. Carli is the last person anyone expects to be chosen. The bus doesn’t go around the world. It barrel-rolls through space into the realm of Primørdiya. And the place it takes her — Harbornacles Sanctuary of Primørdial Arts — defies anything Carli could have imagined.

​

A living tree-fortress where apprentices learn to wield the primørdial forces that hold reality together. A Flying Kitchen that floats on spaghetti pillars where food carries memories. A place where her mismatched eyes aren’t a flaw — they’re the reason she was hidden.

​

Something with metal feet has been hunting her since the day she arrived. The cosmic Tree of Life is uprooted and dying. The Fire Seed that could save it has vanished. And the truth about who Carli really is — and why she was hidden — is more dangerous than anything hunting her.

​

Some children are born ordinary. Carli Rockell was born necessary.

​

For fans of Spirited Away and readers who crave Studio Ghibli wonder with Roald Dahl’s sharp edge. Includes a recipe collection from the wonderfully wacky Gustallini family of The Flying Kitchen.​