The Legend of Greyhallow

May 15, 2023
An action-filled tale brimming with real-world and fantastical tensions. Twelve-year-old Ainsley Galloway has moved to the town of Lowry with her parents and brother, 10-year-old Tobin. The area is the setting for the famous movie trilogy The Legend of Greyhallow, and Ainsley's parents have bought long-missing director Ambrose Ripley's mansion to renovate into an inn dedicated to its fantasy world. After Ainsley and Tobin are gifted a wooden box from a mysterious woman at the town's Greyhallow-themed movie festival, they discover inside it a brass key that unlocks Ripley's attic. The attic contains a magical projector, movie costumes, clapperboard, and more, transporting the duo into the world of Greyhallow. Only all is not well there, and the siblings must work to help the characters of the medieval fantasy setting while navigating between their world and ours--something that becomes especially critical as the line between the two blurs. This fun read artfully combines our reality with Greyhallow's, allowing readers to explore Ainsley's realistic relationship struggles with Charlotte, her best friend back home, and cheer her on as she spars with gargoyles and other magical creatures. Watching the siblings gain confidence as they solve puzzles both real and cinematic is satisfying, and fans of The Lord of the Rings and portal fantasies will find much to enjoy. Main characters present White; Charlotte is cued Korean American. A delightful, engaging otherworldly adventure sure to charm. (Fantasy. 10-14)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

May 22, 2023
Twelve-year-old Ainsley Galloway and her 10-year-old brother Tobin have just moved to the small town of Lowry, famous as the shooting location of epic fantasy movie trilogy Greyhallow. Their parents plan to turn the house of the franchise’s long-vanished director into a Greyhallow-themed inn, decorated with possessions he left behind, including movie costumes and props. In the inn’s attic, Ainsley and Tobin discover an old movie projector that allows them to physically enter the world of Greyhallow. But the fantastical realm is much less welcoming than the one the siblings remember from the films. While exploring, they encounter people and creatures from the movies, and accidentally unleash the series’ antagonist, Lord Mourdro, and his armies into the real world. Now the duo must not only help Greyhallow’s inhabitants reclaim their world but stop Mourdro from destroying Earth as well. In this exuberant adventure, Short (Attack of the Killer Komodos) blends ordinary interpersonal issues between Ainsley and her best friend Charlotte with classic portal fantasy tropes and properties to flesh out a wish-fulfilling jaunt couched in the theme of a metafictional desire to visit a beloved fandom’s world. Charlotte cues as Korean American; most other characters read as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Birch Path Literary.