The Forest in the Hallway

This newfangled mixture of some fantasy standards marks Smith's fantastical yet somewhat derivative debut. Fourteen-year-old Beatriz finds her parents missing when she gets home from school. Days later, she goes to stay with her Uncle M in New York City until the police can suss out her parents' whereabouts. Similar to what transpires in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the heroine stumbles upon a portal into a magical world while on the 19th floor of her uncle's apartment building. There she embarks on a quest to find her parents. During her travels, she conjures a few spells from a book of sorcery, gets trapped in what feels like a cross between a perpetual dinner party in the woods and a bed 'n' breakfast (where the guests can never leave), and bumps into a handful of kooky characters (an ill-tempered witch with a hankering for tacky clothing, an overly sarcastic and surprisingly helpful Death, and two children who bear a striking resemblance to her lost parents). While this may be a somewhat intriguing adventure tale, readers might not get past the feeling that they've seen it all before. The ending that suggests the events may have been just a dream will therefore come as no surprise. Ages 10-14.