Girls are forbidden to practice story magic. Only bad things happen when they do. Everyone knows this, but that doesn’t stop 12-year-old Kaya from learning the basics from her older brother Hob. The trick is to sense a listener, one of the magical beings that inhabit the world, and tell it a story. If the listener is pleased and likes the story, they will allow the storyteller to work magic.

Although Kaya knows the risks, she attempts a little story magic to impress Hob. When Hob is taken prisoner in Prima, the faraway capital city, Kaya is convinced its her fault, either because someone discovered what she was doing or because the bad luck has found her. Desperate to save her brother, Kaya will do anything to make it to Prima, including story magic.

With each story she tells her ability to wield story magic grows and she soon begins to wonder if her brothers imprisonment was really her fault or something else entirely. Each story brings her one step closer to finding Hob and leaving everything she’s ever known behind.

“Gale quickly creates a fantastical world … maintains focus and ensures that the story is easy for young readers to follow. Recommended.”—School Library Journal
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“A coming-of-age adventure whose heroine may have to grow up fast, but does so on her own terms.”—Foreword Reviews

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