Bill Bunn
Published: 2012-10
Total Pages: 301
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When Steve Best was 12, his mom disappeared—literally vanishing from her armchair in the sitting room. A terror-stricken scream for help, a blinding flash of light, and she was gone. Only a puddle of coffee and a stained notebook remain. Now, on the second Christmas since her disappearance, Steve’s life is a disaster. He’s failing everything at school. His dad alternately mopes and yells at him. Even his attempt to save a duck from the school bullies led to the nickname he’s dying to forget. To make matters even worse, his dad is forced to travel over the holidays, leaving Steve to stay with his dotty great aunt Shannon and her bookish, absent-minded husband. Shannon insists that Steve bring along his mother’s old notebook, which neither he nor his dad could bear to throw out. Steve learns from Shannon that he comes from a family of alchemists, that alchemy is about far more than turning lead into gold, and that his mother was researching the possibility of using alchemical devices to transport people to different places. Skeptical at first, Steve finally masters a transformation that shows him the power of alchemy to transport people between dimensions. He might be able to use this power to save his mom–but only if thugs or the police don’t stop him first.