The Wizard of Owl Cottage: Berry Time (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798997236007)

Some walls are built to keep things out. Some are built to keep things in. The trick is knowing which kind you are looking at - before you climb over.

Sophia notices walls. Emma notices when grown-ups are lying. Harvey notices berries - which is exactly how all the trouble begins.

On a bright June morning, three cousins wander past the last mown yard and discover an ancient stone wall where no wall has ever been. It runs in a perfect, mortarless curve with no gate and no break, ringing a wood that is too green, too quiet, and far too old - where the oaks are oakier than oaks and the shade is more shade than shade. Along the wall grow berries no bird will touch: gold-red, moon-blue, and deepest, coldest black.

And when Harvey's hand closes around the darkest one, something deep beneath the earth answers with a small, patient, metal sound.

A chain.

At the heart of the circle waits Owl Cottage, where the kettles have names, the furniture has opinions, and three owls keep watch from the roof. Its keeper is the Warden: a jovial, ancient, unsettlingly powerful wizard keeping a very old promise - and guarding a door that must never be opened.

To mend what they have broken, the cousins must restore three forgotten wards before the boundary fails: the Sun Meadow Stone, the Moonbrook Gate, the Blackthorn Root. Each errand tests one child exactly where they are strongest:

* Sophia, who keeps everyone safe - until safety becomes a cage.

* Emma, clever enough to doubt everything - until cleverness becomes pride.

* Harvey, kind to every small and lonely thing - until kindness forgets to be wise.

For something is waiting beneath Owl Cottage. A prisoner who never shouts and never threatens - a gentle, sorrowful, endlessly patient voice that knows each child's name for goodness and asks, so softly, for one small kindness. It will not tempt them to be cruel. It will tempt them to be good in exactly the wrong way.

The Wizard of Owl Cottage: Berry Time is a warm, old-fashioned fairy tale in the tradition of the great read-aloud classics - funny, tender, and quietly wise. It is a story about boundaries and bravery, mercy and its counterfeits, and the hardest lesson of all: learning which doors should stay shut, and why kindness, cleverness, and courage each need wisdom to remain good.

Brimming with bickering cousins, opinionated kettles, a box turtle of ancient disapproval, and an owl calling "Who cooks for you?" through the trees, this is a book to be devoured under the covers and shared aloud at bedtime - with a gentle invitation to talk about when to help and when to hold back, and why some boundaries are a form of love.

Perfect for readers ages 8 to 12 and families reading together. Fans of Narnia, The Tale of Despereaux, Tuck Everlasting, and The Penderwicks will feel right at home.

Step over the wall. Just remember: some doors are meant to stay closed.

Includes a glossary of the real wildflowers, trees, and fungi the children meet - a hidden nature guide tucked inside a fairy tale.