The Secret Box by Barbara Lehman
Recommended by senior librarian Pat Palahniuk for children ages 4 to 8
In this time travel, wordless fantasy book, author Lehman draws us into the intrigue as we see a young boy, dressed in knickers, hide a box under the floor in his school dormitory. As the story develops, the landscape changes, the world moves forward, and cars replace horse-drawn wagons. In the present day, a group of three boys discover the buried box and in it a treasure map. Where will the map lead them?
The Queen of Water by Laura Resau and María Virginia Farinango
Recommended by librarian Rose Ryan for teens
Based on a true story, this novel tells the story of Virginia Farinango, taken as a young girl from her poor family to work as a servant for wealthy landowners. Virginia’s home country of Ecuador is divided into two classes: the poor indigenas and the wealthy mestizos. Virginia’s new owner is cruel and tries to break her. Despite these circumstances, Virginia finds the inner strength to persevere; her story of survival is a triumph of the human spirit.
The Book of Tomorrow by Cecelia Ahern
Recommended by associate librarian Susan Cooper for adults or teens
Tamara and her mother are forced out of their affluent life near Dublin, and move to the country to live with relatives in the shadow of an old castle ruin. Tamara’s future is as uncertain as the blank pages in a mysterious book she finds there. When Tamara sits down to start a journal, sentences appear and disappear on the page. Only they aren’t the events of today or yesterday, but of tomorrow. And they’re coming true. Magical realism is at the heart of this intriguing tale.
