The Strangers (21 page)

JACQUELINE WEST is obsessed with stories where magic intersects with everyday life—from talking cats, to enchanted eyewear, to paintings as portals to other worlds. An award-winning poet, former teacher, and occasional musician, Jacqueline now lives with her husband in Red Wing, Minnesota. There she dreams of dusty libraries, secret passageways, and more adventures for Olive, Morton, and Rutherford.

W
hen eleven-year-old Olive moves into the crumbling old mansion on Linden Street, she’s right to think there’s something weird about the place—the creepy antique paintings, the three very unusual cats. But the weirdest thing? When Olive finds a pair of old-fashioned glasses in a drawer, she discovers she can travel
inside
the paintings to Elsewhere, a sinister world with strange secrets to keep. There she meets Morton, a small boy with a big temper. As he and Olive form an uneasy alliance, Olive finds herself caught in a plan darker and more dangerous than she could have imagined, confronting a power that wants to be rid of her by any means necessary. It’s up to her to save the house from the shadows, before the lights go out for good.

S
ome terrifying things have happened to Olive in the old stone house, but none as scary as starting . . .
junior high.
When she plummets through a hole in her backyard, however, Olive discovers two things that may change her mind: First, the wicked Annabelle McMartin is back. Second, there’s a secret belowground that unlocks not one but
two
of Elsewhere’s biggest, most powerful, most dangerous forces yet. With the house’s guardian cats acting weird, her best friend hiding something huge, and her ally Morton starting to rebel, Olive isn’t sure where to turn. Will she figure it out in time? Or will she be lured into Elsewhere and trapped there forever?

O
live is getting worried. With no way into the McMartins’ enchanted paintings, her friend Morton is still trapped on the other side—in Elsewhere. Worse? The house’s three guardian cats are absolutely no help at all (they’re hiding something; Olive is sure of it). So when the new oddball kid next door mentions a grimoire—a
spellbook
—Olive feels a breathless tug of excitement. If she can find the McMartins’ spellbook, maybe she can help Morton escape Elsewhere for good. Unless, that is, the
book
finds
Olive
first.