Windswept

Gr 5 Up––When children (or Youngers) venture Outside, they are often Windswept, or blown away by the wind, never to be seen again. This was the case of Hyacinth’s sisters Iris, Lily, and Rose, when they broke the rules and went to the Outside. The youngest sister Hyacinth, also known as Tagalong or Tag, is a step behind her sisters when the sisters go to the forbidden Outside and are separated from her. Years later, Tag receives a note asking her to attend a meeting on the forbidden Outside. She leaves her home and is soon leading an adventure to find her siblings. The unlikely crew of Youngers—Finn, Boots, Ren, Ant, and Tag, with the dog BlueTooth—journey into the Unknown to find their windswept siblings, meeting many magical characters along the way. They take a forbidden fairy-tale book with them, and it becomes their field guide for an adventure of a lifetime. Preus’s latest is a modern and slightly dystopian fairy-tale based on Norwegian folklore. Her hypnotic writing will tug at readers’ hearts and keep them mesmerized. Veve’s illustrations and maps add interest and enhance the text.