Starred Review If fairy tales are true, then what happens once you leave Wonderland? Nancy is one of those children who found a magic door, but to prove that she's worthy of staying forever in the Underworld, she is sent back ere her parents desperately enroll her in Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children. In this cross between a school and an asylum, Nancy mixes with others just like her: a prince with a mistaken identity, twins who've hung out with mad scientists and vampires, and many other girls who wandered through other worlds only to find themselves inevitably stranded. All of the students are trying to find the portal back to their fairyland spite reminders that most doors open only once. Nancy discovers the lengths that Wayward Children will go to rediscover their worlds when her roommate, Sumi, turns up mutilated and murdered. McGuire takes readers by the hand and leads them down the twisty pathways of childhood, opening mysterious trunks and tapping on magical doors, down the rabbit holes of realization that perhaps every legend was true, once, for some child. And for every child who discovered the magic of a world where he or she finally perfectly fit in, there's an adult who reluctantly returned to earth by stumbling through a door of realization or simply by turning the page. This amazing fantasy pierces the shimmering veil of childhood imagination by reminding adult readers that their own doorways still exist deep in the chambers of their all-too-human hearts.

This new story from a veteran fantasy author offers writing that's full of imagery and evocative emotions and helps build suspense from the very first sentence. Behind the titular doorway lie alternate worlds, some magical, some dangerous, and some both. The children, mostly girls, who go through the doors become irrevocably changed, many of them becoming mature beyond their actual years. When they return to the real world, their families and friends no longer understand them. And some, like Nancy, want desperately to return to their alternate world, where they felt welcomed and loved. Eleanor West was once a young traveler to those worlds, and now she runs a home for these wayward children, helping them adjust to reality. Just as Nancy begins to make a place for herself, a puzzling and gruesome series of murders threaten the students and the home's very existence. The characters are well drawn, and their feelings about their impossible situation are believable. The alienation they experience and their struggles to find a way back will appeal to teens. When the murderer is revealed, the motivation will be understood by characters and readers alike. VERDICT Though short (this tale is more novella than novel), this clever inside out fantasy will intrigue fantasy fans and those who loved Ransom Riggs's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children . Gretchen Crowley, Alexandria City Public Libraries, VA