A Corner of White (The Colors of Madeleine, Book 1)

May 13, 2013
Two worlds coexist in this fascinating first book in Moriarty's Colors of Madeleine series. Bright, enigmatic 14-year-old Madeleine has moved to Cambridge, England, with her mother, where she receives home schooling from a small group of eccentric teachers, along with friends Jack and Belle. Madeleine accidentally makes contact with the fantastical Kingdom of Cello when she discovers a message poking out of a broken parking meter. She begins a written correspondence with 15-year-old Elliott, a boy living in the Cellian farming town of Bonfire, where Colors, "a kind of rogue subclass of the colors that we see," are known to attack and kill (Elliott's father was the alleged victim of a "Purple"), and the arrival of the fabled "Butterfly Child" is an auspicious sign. As the narrative alternates between Cello and Cambridge, some readers may be frustrated by the slow unfolding of events, yet moments of sharp observation, startling invention, and delightfully comic dialogue confirm Moriarty as a genre-bending author who gracefully weaves metaphysical questions into outwardly ordinary circumstances. Ages 12âup. Agent: Jill Grinberg Literary Management.

August 16, 2012
Madeleine lives in Cambridge, England, The World, where she is homeschooled along with her two friends Belle and Jack. One day Madeleine finds a letter in a parking meter—and for the fun of it, she replies. The recipient of her letter is Elliot—resident of Bonfire, The Farms, The Kingdom of Cello. We learn that there used to be contact between the two worlds until all cracks between them were sealed around the time of Henry VIII. But now a crack has appeared, which allows Elliot and Madeleine to write to each other. Though it takes a while for Madeleine to believe she is talking to someone from another world (she accuses Elliot of ripping off Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights in his description of his town), the two find solace in writing to someone who is so completely removed from their current situation. We see both teenagers struggling to deal with responsibilities that would normally be handled by a parent, and how they are helped by this magical connection. Jaclyn Moriarty’s books are always original and quirky and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint. I would recommend it to both adults and teenagers in search of something a little less ordinary.

Amelia Vahtrick is the children’s book buyer at Better Read Than Dead in Newtown