Fourteen-year-old T. J. has just moved with her family from their farm to the suburbs, and she’s lost both her best friend and her adored horse. Introverted T. J. is mired in self-pity. Elizabeth, on the other hand, is vocal about her feelings. A sixteen-year-old blue-haired punk, Elizabeth is defiant and proud of it, running away from home despite her parents’ warnings to be cautious. The world holds many dangers for Elizabeth, a “Little” person, only six inches tall. When T. J. and Elizabeth meet, they soon discover they have much in common, despite their obvious physical differences. When Elizabeth is inadvertently abducted by a gang of delinquents, quiet T. J. risks danger to rescue her new friend. Contemporary reality meets a fantastical underworld of magic, inhabited by goblins, gnomes, fairies, and, of course, Littles in a richly imagined tale. Fans of Charles De Lint will welcome this return to Newford, the fictional city featured in several of the author’s other works, including The Blue Girl (Viking, 2004). (Ages 11–15)

Fourteen-year-old T.J. and her new friend, sixteen-year-old Elizabeth, a six-inch-high "Little" with a big chip on her shoulder, help one another as T.J. tries to adjust to her family's move from a farm to the big city and Elizabeth tries to make her own way in the world.