• Age: 11 to 14
• Grade: 6 to 9
• Reading age: 11 to 14

When Frances finds an old, mouse-eaten journal in a trunk at the family homestead, she is dismayed to find that the entries are written in Icelandic, and the pages are torn and moldy. Some things should just be left alone, warns her grandmother. Yet something pushes Frances to uncover the secrets that the book contains - secrets about her own past, filled with tales of forbidden love, hardship, scandal and ghosts. Award-winning author W.D. Valgardson's novel is a magical journey with an unforgettable heroine.

W. D. Valgarson is a novelist, short story writer, and poet. He lives in British Columbia.

William D. Valgardson's profile page

• Long-listed, Sheila A. Egoff Children's Literature Prize

A splendid addition to the numerous intergenerational stories and many other fine books in which characters explore their family trees.

School Library Journal

What will hold readers is the lure of family secret, past and present, as well as the strong characterizations across generations and the sense of the wild beautiful place.

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