When a scarecrow climbs over the garden wall, delivering twelve-year-old orphan Zita Brydgeborn a letter saying she has inherited a distant castle, she jumps at the chance of adventure. But little does she know that she is about to be thrust into a centuries-old battle between good and evil. Blackbird Castle was once home to a powerful dynasty of witches, all of them now dead under mysterious circumstances. Zita is the last of her line. And Zita, unfortunately, doesn’t know the first thing about being a witch. As she begins her lessons in charms and spells with her guardian, Mrs. Cantanker, Zita makes new allies—a crow, a talking marble head, two castle servants just her age named Bram and Minnifer, and the silent ghost of a green-eyed girl. But who is friend and who is foe? Zita must race to untangle her past and find the magic to save the home she’s always hoped for. Because whatever claimed the souls of her family is now after her.
Author
Stefan Bachmann was born in Colorado and spent of most of his childhood in Switzerland, where he graduated from the Zürich University of Arts with degrees in musical composition and theory. He's lived in Tokyo, Prague, and Berlin, and now divides his time between Zürich and a small town on the Dutch border. He's the author of several books for young readers, including his debut, THE PECULIAR, which was an international bestseller, a Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year, and was translated into eight languages. His latest book, CINDERS AND SPARROWS is a Bank Street Best Book of the Year and a Golden Dome Award finalist. His other books have been named a VOYA Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, a New York Times Editor's Choice, a New York Public Library's 100 titles for reading and sharing, and have been selected multiple times for the Junior Library Guild. website | insta | blog | twitter (Note about my reviews: I use Goodreads to keep track of the books I read, and to rave about books I love. Not rating a book doesn't mean I *didn't* love it, but five stars - which is pretty much the only rating I use - means I really, really did.)
