An adventure to a world where lost things-and people-live on.Cousins Jake and Marisol grew up listening to their late Nana's exciting tales of adventures whenever the family got together at her house in South Carolina. This summer marks the time to say goodbye, as the house needs to be sold, but Marisol is not ready to move on yet. Finding one of Nana's old maps is just the excuse for one last adventure. The duo accidentally slips into the World Between Blinks, a place where anything lost in our world-from historical figures like Amelia Earhart to lost cities, extinct animals, and everyday mislaid objects-ends up. Jake and Marisol must find their way back before they start forgetting their own memories and become lost there forever. Chapters alternate between Jake's and Marisol's points of view in a novel that beautifully delves into each cousin's inner turmoil: Marisol struggles with the grief of losing not only Nana, but the house where so many memories were built while Jake feels he has sadly grown used to constantly saying goodbye due to having a traveling diplomat mother. The authors deftly weave those elements into an enduring tale of love, loss, and memory. Jake is White and American; Marisol lives in La Paz with her Bolivian father and her mother, who is Jake's mother's identical twin.An inventive, heartwarming first book in a new middle-grade series. (glossary of historical figures and places) (Fantasy. 9-14)

Two heroes head on a quest in this series starter with a strong focus on family and shared memories. After 12-year-old Marisol Beruna-s adventure-loving Nana dies, she travels from her home in La Paz to Nana-s South Carolina beach house, where the family is gathering to prepare the home for sale. Marisol hopes to use her uncanny ability-locating missing objects-to somehow afford the house-s upkeep and keep it in the family. When she and her favorite cousin, Jake, also 12, find a treasure map that their Nana drew, they follow it down the beach, only to wind up trapped in an adjacent realm filled with lost entities from their own world-cities such as Atlantis, historical figures such as Amelia Earhart, and treasures such as the fabled Amber Room. In their effort to return home, they must recover a magical book before they-re stuck there forever. Kaufman (the Aurora Cycle series) and Graudin (Invictus) take full advantage of the book-s inventive premise, introducing readers to a host of exciting historical oddities and concepts, including the Library of Alex-andria, the Tasmanian Tiger, and Queen Nefertiti, all of which are detailed further in supplementary notes. Ages 8-12. Agent: Tracey Adams, Adams Literary. (Jan.)