The Owl Keeper

Maxwell Unger has always loved the night. He used to do brave things like go tramping through the forest with his Gran after dark. He loved the stories she told him about the world before the Destruction--about nature, and books, and the silver owls. His favorite story, though, was about the Owl Keeper. Max's Gran is gone now, and so are her stories of how the world used to be. The forest is dangerous, the books Gran had saved have been destroyed, the silver owls are extinct, and Max is no longer brave. But when a mysterious girl comes to town, he might just have to start being brave again. The time of the Owl Keeper, Gran would say, is coming soon.

CHRIS BRODIEN-JONES has always been fascinated by the mysterious "other worlds" that we inhabit as children. Her novel The Owl Keeper began with an image of two children beside a river in a forest without colors.  Intrigued by this "other world," she followed them inside.  Brodien-Jones studied writing at Emerson College, Boston, and has been a journalist, editor and teacher. She now splits her time between Gloucester, Massachusets, and Deer Isle, Maine.