A blend of realism and fantasy moves back and forth between a story about three outsiders who become friends in junior high school, and a secondary plot involving the Faery Queen Titania, King Oberon, and Puck. Salman Page is a new kid at school, and Lu Zimmer is assigned to be his designated buddy. Salman and Lu’s friendship is tentative at first. But when Lu sees how Salman’s dark skin and foster child status, not to mention the crow that follows him around outside, make him a target of other kids, she takes his side without question. Lu is not sure what Salman will make of Blos Pease, but Salman likes Blos (who appears to be somewhere on the Autism spectrum) because he’s always genuine. The subplot in this otherwise solid work of realistic fiction relates to Salman. Queen Titania promised Salman’s mother that she would watch over the boy until he reached adulthood: Salman’s crow was sent by her. But the heart of A. C. E. Bauer’s compelling novel is the friendship among the three distinct and likeable young, contemporary teens. Bauer provides a rich portrait of her protagonists’ lives as she reveals how their deepening friendship challenges them all to be braver and stronger in many ways. (Ages 10–13)

Lu Zimmer's best friend moved away last summer. Salman Page is the new kid in school. Blos Pease takes everything literally. Three kids who are on the fringe of the middle school social order find each other and warily begin to bond, but suddenly things start going wrong. Salman becomes the object of the school bully's torment, and Lu's pregnant mother has some unexpected complications. Is something conspiring against them?

In fact, through no fault of their own, Salman and Lu have become pawns in a game of jealous one-upmanship between Oberon and Titania, the king and queen of Faery, with the mischievous Puck trying to keep the peace.

Taken from Titania's mention of a foundling in Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, A. C. E. Bauer spins an original tale about magical intervention in the least magical of settings: a public middle school.