About
Sylvie had an amazing life, but she didn’t get to live it very often.
Sylvie has been a twelve-year-old princess for more than eighty years, ever since the book she lives in was first printed. She’s the heroine, and her story is exciting. But that’s the trouble: it’s always exciting in the same way. So when a new Reader opens the book at long last, Sylvie breaks the cardinal rule of all storybook characters: she looks up. And sets into motion a new story all her own.
Now, Sylvie is in for an adventure beyond any she could have imagined. As her journey takes her from the pages of a book to the landscape of dreams, Sylvie must summon all her courage to save her kingdom, find her way home, and figure out what it really means to do a Great Good Thing.
Cover art by Corinne Reid
Art direction and design by Debra Sfetsios-Conover
Interior design by Irene Metaxatos
Originally published in 2001 by Atheneum Books for Young Readers
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Acclaim
A VOYA Best Fiction Book
An ABA Children’s Book Sense Top Ten Pick
A Texas Bluebonnet Award Master List Selection
“An imaginative novel.” — New York Times Book Review
★ “Utterly winning . . . Townley has created that most impossible thing: a book beloved from the first page.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Clever, deftly written . . . as much a romantic paean to reading and writing as it is a good story.” —Publishers Weekly
“A clever concept . . . Fantasy lovers and children who enjoy such books as Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth will enjoy this. . . .” —School Library Journal
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Availability
(Paperback) Simon & Schuster / BookShop / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / Amazon
(Hardcover) Simon & Schuster / BookShop / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / Amazon
For best practices against capitalism, please order from an independent bookstore or check out books from your local library whenever possible. (And whenever you support queer- and BIPOC-owned bookstores, know that I am sending extra love and appreciation your way.)
