The Emerald Atlas

If I were an author, I would want the team at Random House Publishing working for me. They have done an excellent job marketing John Stephens’ The Emerald Atlas. This book seems to be on the front shelf in every bookstore’s children/young adult section. It is getting a lot of buzz; justifiably so. This action-packed fantasy (book one of a future trilogy) is about three children who have miserably lived in various orphanages for the past ten years. Their parents abruptly left them ten years before and only the oldest child, Kate, has vivid memories of that day. She vowed to take care of her younger brother, Michael, and baby sister, Emma. After failing to get adopted once again, the trio is taken to a strange place called Cambridge Falls. It is an extremely peculiar place in the middle of nowhere. The only people in the old, dilapidated house are the housekeeper, a servant named Abraham, and the mysterious man, Dr. Pym, who has adopted them. The kids are drawn to a secret office and stumble upon a powerful green book, the Emerald Atlas. By placing an old photograph in the blank pages of the book, the children are swept away to that particular time, a time when children were held captive at Cambridge Falls by an evil witch. The book has the power to transport the kids through time; it is ultimately up to Kate to save the children and people of Cambridge Falls. The three will meet up with some unlikely allies and deadly enemies on their quest. Will Kate, Michael, and Emma finally be reunited with the parents they long to see again? Will the Emerald Atlas fall into the hands of the wicked sorceress? Read The Emerald Atlas to find out, you won’t be disappointed.