Raised since age six by a band of robbers, the Robber Girl has never questioned their leader Gentleman Jack’s story of finding her after she was abandoned by her mother. When Gentleman Jack is arrested during a stagecoach robbery, the girl, who was acting as a decoy, is taken in by the judge and his wife in the town of Blue Rose. People in Blue Rose worship the Seventh Sister, who grants boons to the faithful. The town long ago lost its songbird who sang praise to the Seventh’s Sister daily, but the townspeople continue to honor her. When the judge and his wife, mourning their two children who died of smallpox the year before, ask the girl to choose a name, she picks Starling without knowing why. In the attic of the judge’s house is magnificent dollhouse with a mother and father doll. The dolls ask Starling to bring them three things: a dog, a collar for the dog, and a baby. Starling is determined to grant their request, just as she is determined to free Gentleman Jack before his trial. This mesmerizing tale of manipulation and misplaced loyalty; memory and trauma; loss and healing and love; and learning to trust the voice inside oneself features characters presenting white, and a setting with the feel of the American old west but bound by unique elements of fantasy. At its heart, it’s a story so very human. (Ages 9-13)

Part literary mystery, part magical tour de force—an incantatory novel of fierce beauty, lyricism, and originality from a National Book Award Finalist

A brilliant puzzle of a book from the author of Chime and The Folk Keeper plunges us into the vulnerable psyche of one of the most memorable unreliable narrators to grace the page in decades. The Robber Girl has a good dagger. Its voice in her head is as sharp as its two edges that taper down to a point. Today, the Robber Girl and her dagger will ride with Gentleman Jack into the Indigo Heart to claim the gold that’s rightfully his. But instead of gold, the Robber Girl finds a dollhouse cottage with doorknobs the size of apple seeds. She finds two dolls who give her three tasks, even though she knows that three is too many tasks. The right number of tasks is two, like Grandmother gave to Gentleman Jack: Fetch unto me the mountain’s gold, to build our city fair. Fetch unto me the wingless bird, and I shall make you my heir. The Robber Girl finds what might be a home, but to fight is easier than to trust when you’re a mystery even to yourself and you’re torn between loyalty and love. The Robber Girl is at once achingly real—wise to the nuances of trauma—and loaded with magic, action, and intrigue. Every sentence shines, sharp as a blade, in a beautifully crafted novel about memory, identity, and the power of language to heal and reconstruct our lives.