The Mossheart’s Promise

Like all fairies of Terra—the terrarium where the Gardener once placed fairies for safety—12-year-old Canary “Ary” Mossheart grew up hearing the legend of her heroic grandmother saving the town from plague 50 years earlier. Now, though, food has become scarce, and her grandmother can save the residents from neither growing darkness nor creeping rot. To help keep the decaying community alive, Ary scrapes mold and, like other fairies, prepares to sacrifice her wings, which will be ground into a magical dust that helps the community. When her beloved mother is struck with the deadly mold, usually timid Ary sets out to find a cure, accompanied by irritating, wingless Owl, who believes Terra is dying, and a taciturn pill bug named Shrimp. As Ary makes her way underground, she discovers cracks in everything she thought she knew about Terra—and her Gran. Boasting rich, confident worldbuilding and complex interspecies relations in a starkly rendered setting, this stirring middle grade debut from Mix (The Ones We Burn) passionately explores the courage it takes to lead with empathy and to become a hero in the face of older generations’ failures. Characters are described as having various skin tones. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Sept.)