Maggie & Abby's Neverending Pillow Fort

Gr 3–6—Maggie has spent the last six weeks lonely and bored, waiting for her best friend and across-the-street neighbor, Abby, to return from Camp Cantaloupe. Maggie assumes that everything will be the same as before, but when Abby returns, she only talks about camp and doesn't want to play their old games. The exception is the pillow fort that Maggie built in her living room. Abby builds one of her own and the girls discover that the pillow forts magically connect through a mysterious link. The next day they find another link, to Maggie's Uncle Joe who is doing whale research in Alaska. That night Maggie is taken to visit the council of the North American Founding and Allied Forts Alliance (NAFAFA). She discovers that not only are there connected pillow forts all over North America, but also to keep the portals open and be able to build more, she and Abby must to do a good deed in the next three days. NAFAFA council politics complicate their attempts and when their parents find out about the pillow forts, it looks like the links may be closed forever. A mysterious key found in the Le Petit Salon in Versailles may have the answer to all their problems and sets up the cliffhanger ending, which clearly marks this as the first in a series. This is not without appeal. Unfortunately, the playfulness of the premise is marred by the convoluted explanations of the magical world-building, and the author's attempts at exploring changing friendships feels oversimplified.