Nothing Stays Lost

Everyone in Bellwether Hollow knows three things.

Nothing bad ever happens here. Nothing ever stays lost. And nobody - nobody - says I promise.

Not one person can tell you why.

Twelve-year-old Dez Tolliver is spending the worst summer of his life clearing out his great-grandmother's house in a small valley town that feels one degree off true. Then, under a floorboard, he finds a heavy brass coin stamped with a clock that has no hands.

Hold it, and the abandoned fairground at the edge of town isn't abandoned at all. It's lit. It's beautiful. It's open - and it has been open the whole time. Somewhere inside it, a carousel is turning with forty horses that aren't galloping.

They're listening.

A bargain a hundred and thirty-seven years old is holding all of it in place, and it's coming apart. It will be renewed at midnight on the eleventh of August, and Dez has until then to learn the rules of a place where every word is a contract, a saying is a promise, and thank you is a payment.

Because his nine-year-old sister said eight ordinary words at a fence in June.

And something wrote them down.

A spellbinding, quietly eerie fantasy for ages 10-13

• A brother and sister you'll want to protect


• A fair-folk bargain with rules you can actually solve


• A whole town that has forgotten something on purpose


• An ending that costs the hero something real

Perfect for readers who loved Coraline, Small Spaces, and Doll Bones - and for anyone who has ever been told it's time to move on.