The Shadows
The Book of Elsewhere, Volume 1
Jacqueline West

Dial
June 2011/ ISBN 0142418722
Children Ages 9-12 / Fantasy
Amazon

Reviewed by Jan Fields

Olive is the child of brilliant mathematicians -- but she struggles with math. She's the most ordinary girl in the world, until she discovers that her family's new home includes talking cats and spooky paintings. Now Olive has to call on all her brains to decide who to trust and which adventures are worth taking. I loved the wonderful personalities in each of the three cats. And I loved the magic of the paintings. I was a child who would often spend hours taking in all the details of a painting, imagining it as a gateway to another world, so I was immediately drawn to the story. This is a
charmingly spooky book that will appeal to readers everywhere who worry about being a bit too ordinary.