Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the author of the critically acclaimed The Imaginary comes a powerful story about friendship in the vein of Roald Dahl and Neil Gaiman.

A School Library Journal Best Book of 2017
A Wall Street Journal Best Book of 2017

Frank thought her summer couldn't get any worse--until big, weird, smelly Nick Underbridge rescues her from a bully, and she winds up at his house.

Frank quickly realizes there's more to Nick than meets the eye. When she's at his house, she hears the strangest, most beautiful music, music which leads her to a mysterious, hidden door. Beyond the door are amazing creatures that she never even dreamed could be real. For the first time in forever, Frank feels happy . . . and she and Nick start to become friends.

But Nick's incredible secrets are also accompanied by great danger. Frank must figure out how to help her new friend, the same way that he has helped her.

Paired with gorgeous black-and-white illustrations from Levi Pinfold, acclaimed author A. F. Harrold weaves a powerful story about unlikely friendship, strange magic, and keeping the shadows at bay.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

School Library Journal Review

Gr 4-6-Strong characterizations and a good dose of spookiness are standouts in this illustrated novel. After a strange boy named Nick rescues her from bullies, Frank begins a cautious friendship with her unpopular classmate. When she hears mysterious and beautiful music coming from Nick's cellar, Frank secretly investigates. She discovers a "leechway" that acts as a door to alternate realities. Nick's nonhuman mother lives in one of them; so do creepy "stick-creatures" who seem eager to invade our world. The two kids play heroic, save-the-world roles in an action-packed climax, but there's just as much tension in the carefully paced plot that leads up to it. Third-person narration conveys Frank's inner thoughts and perceptions, revealing a tentative, flawed, but quite likable protagonist. Amusing inner dialogues with her nervous stomach show how the girl struggles with self-esteem, courage, and ethical choices. She comes through bravely against the stick-figures, but there's a different, equally satisfying triumph in a final scene where she defends a child from bullies. The eeriness builds slowly as Frank gradually learns more about the leechway. The ominous mood is aided by atmospheric black-and-white drawings that capture the shadowy menace creeping into Frank's world. VERDICT Hand to fans of Neil Gaiman's Coraline, Holly Black's Doll Bones, and other books that balance scariness and substance.-Steven Engelfried, -Wilsonville Public Library, OR © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Booklist Review

Francesca Frank Patel couldn't experience a worse summer. Her best friend is away, her cat is missing, and the school bully won't leave her alone. When the horrid giant of a kid Nick Underbridge rescues her and takes her to his home, Frank doesn't know what to make of him. His father is friendly, and the house is cheerful and filled with beautiful music. When she snoops behind a secret door, she discovers the source of the music: a gigantic troll, who Nick reveals is his mother, living in another world. Frank agrees to keep Nick's secret; but as their friendship develops, she realizes the secret is dangerous and could cause harm to Nick and his family, forcing her to make a difficult decision. Friendship, acceptance, trust, and decency weave their magic throughout Harrold's (The Imaginary, 2015) tale, which questions how fairy tales and fantasy find their place in our universe. Lush black-and-white illustrations by Pinfold enhance the secrecy, wonder, and mood of the story.--Fredriksen, Jeanne Copyright 2017 Booklist

Horn Book Review

When shes rescued from a gang of bullies by Nicholas Underbridge, Frank (short for Francesca) Patel is relieved but horrified. Relieved to escape; horrified that weird Nick, the school outcast, has helped her. And Nicks home life is even stranger than Frank could have imagined: when he invites her home, she hears beautiful music issuing from the basement--music composed and played by a troll-like creature, mountainous and gray, mossy-eared and flat-faced. This is Nicks mother, a being who lives in a world only occasionally connected to ours, and from which, through an unplugged hole in the realities, Nick slipped as a baby. Even that intermittent contact is dangerous, however; and when Frank spills the secret to the bullies, she puts Nick--and, she learns, the whole world--at risk. There are people out therewho are always looking for these leechways between worlds. People wholl take it and point it at some other other world. At somewhere more dangerous than where Nicks from. And it wont just be a window anymore. Theyll force it open and let things out. Harrolds story smacks of fairy tale, fable, and dream. Its also rooted in familiar issues: the boring nastiness of bullies; the testing of courage. Harrolds incisive, poetic way with words, often dryly comic, enlivens even mundane descriptions; even more, it intensifies the vague darkness of his otherworldly imagery. Pinfolds shadowy art deepens the storys air of mystery and threat, at times filling double-page spreads, at times creeping in from the margins of pages to cloud the print itself. deirdre f. baker (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Kirkus Book Review

Francesca "Frank" Patel's summer holiday is interrupted, first by bullies and then by a glimpse of another world. The neighborhood goons pick on Frank with escalating meanness. But the odd, large, flat-faced boy from her school whose name (Nicholas Underbridge) hints at his unusual originsthe boy everyone claims smells and no one wants to sit withrescues her bag from a nettle field where the bullies tossed it, then takes her to his house for refuge. Nick's house, filled with his dad's colorful abstract paintings, is otherwise tidy except for two things: there is a damp, rich, earthy odor there, and Frank hears extraordinary music that fills her soul and makes her long for more. Frank's curiosity results in a frightening, nearly world-ending chain of events. Harrold gracefully tosses together hints of quantum physics, old legends, and magic-ministry-type agents. Frank's struggle to reconcile her fear of her bullies, her growing friendship with Nick, and the truth about the maker of otherworldly music are poignantly convincing and likable. Pinfold's atmospheric illustrations, darkly menacing and mysterious by turns, add to the contemporary folk-tale atmosphere. The only hints about Frank's Indian heritage are her name and a minor moment when an elderly woman asks Frank's wisecracking at-home dad if they have tuna fish "where you come from." A captivating British import. (Fantasy. 8-11) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.