Most students and staff at Esther’s boarding school think that the new teacher, Mrs. Pollock, is wonderful—her teasing is so funny! But Esther, who is white, thinks Mrs. Pollock’s humor is cruel. Why doesn’t anyone else agree? It’s not the only strange thing going on. Esther’s dad, a historian, is convinced environmental changes disrupting the oceans is the work of an evil fiend, but he can’t get others to take him seriously. After an attack by Shadow Mages at the school, observant Esther tries using the limited magic skills she has to keep everyone safe. But Mrs. Pollock’s continual “teasing” make it harder and harder to feel confident, something Esther already struggles with. Then Esther discovers that she has magical gifts beyond anything she imagined, but accepting them means re-living a traumatic event from her early childhood. She’s caught glimpses of it in her dreams without understanding the whole story, let alone that it holds the key to why Esther’s mother seems to ignore her—a source of ongoing pain. Told in Esther’s first-person voice, this distinctive fantasy is uplifting even as it tackles serious issues, including bullying, manipulation, fear, love, fallibility, and forgiveness. Esther’s family’s dynamics with sisters Imogen and Astrid and their parents are intriguing, as is the way the book explores how easily people rationalize cruelty, in a story that ultimately is a triumphant tale of self-worth. (Ages 9-12)

Esther is a middle child, in her own mind a pale reflection of siblings who are bright, shining stars. Her mother doesn't show the slightest bit of interest, no matter what Esther does. Still, she's content to go back to school, do her best, hang out with her friends, and let others take care of things.

But her best friends aren't AT school when she gets there. Why didn't they tell her they wouldn't be coming back? Why were they silent all summer? But stuff like that happens. And it's bad luck that her new teacher makes Esther the butt of all kinds of jokes. Mrs. Pollock is rumored to be an ogre—and maybe she IS one. Could be.

Then things go from unfortunate to outright dangerous. The mountains surrounding the school—usually sparkling with glaciers and lakes, alive with Faeries, and sheltering a quaint town with really great bakeries—are now crowded with Shadow Mages, casting a noticeable pall, and clearly—to Esther—signifying something very dark and threatening. As the people she might have depended on to help are either strangely absent or in hiding, it's left to ordinary, middle-child Esther ("just Esther") to act. But she'll have to burst out of the box of mediocrity she's been but in, and do something absolutely extraordinary.

Praise for Jaclyn Moriarty

"Magically uplifting." —The Horn Book, for The Spellbook of Listen Taylor

"... Moriarty [is] a genre-bending author who gracefully weaves metaphysical questions into outwardly ordinary circumstances." —Publishers Weekly, for A Corner of White

★ "[A] highly entertaining and brilliantly plotted fantasy... With its storytelling aplomb, humor, imagination, and many twists and turns, this novel places Moriarty . . . firmly in Diana Wynne Jones territory."—The Horn Book, starred review for The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone

"Jaclyn Moriarty makes me laugh, hysterically—and cry, unexpectedly... Startlingly original fantasy." —E. Lockhart, New York Times bestselling author of We Were Liars