Door One

Book Two opens the stone door.

It's the one with a coin carved into it, worn smooth in the middle like a step in an old church. When the boys put their ears to the doors in the hallway, this is the one with a voice behind it. It isn't gunfire or engines. It's a girl, explaining something, over and over, to nobody.

Behind it is the gentlest world in the hallway. Floating blocks, gold coins, mushrooms, a bridge. It's the kind of place you'd want to play. Jr and Dakota walk in with three lives each and a plan, and neither helps as much as they think it will.

Her name is Ellie. She's nine, and she has been there for eight months. She knows which coins are liars and which row of blocks moves early. She has had eight months to work out the rules, and nobody to check them with.

And one of the things she's sure about isn't true.

I'm proud of Ellie. She's the youngest kid in the series and in some ways the bravest, because she's spent eight months being careful in a place that looks like it's meant for fun.

If your reader loved Marcus, they're going to want to meet her.

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