May 22, 2023
Twelve-year-old Ainsley Galloway and her 10-year-old brother Tobin have just moved to the small town of Lowry, famous as the shooting location of epic fantasy movie trilogy Greyhallow. Their parents plan to turn the house of the franchise’s long-vanished director into a Greyhallow-themed inn, decorated with possessions he left behind, including movie costumes and props. In the inn’s attic, Ainsley and Tobin discover an old movie projector that allows them to physically enter the world of Greyhallow. But the fantastical realm is much less welcoming than the one the siblings remember from the films. While exploring, they encounter people and creatures from the movies, and accidentally unleash the series’ antagonist, Lord Mourdro, and his armies into the real world. Now the duo must not only help Greyhallow’s inhabitants reclaim their world but stop Mourdro from destroying Earth as well. In this exuberant adventure, Short (Attack of the Killer Komodos) blends ordinary interpersonal issues between Ainsley and her best friend Charlotte with classic portal fantasy tropes and properties to flesh out a wish-fulfilling jaunt couched in the theme of a metafictional desire to visit a beloved fandom’s world. Charlotte cues as Korean American; most other characters read as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Birch Path Literary.