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Five paralyzed kids live in a miserable room in Belleview, where they never get visitors or to go outside or have any activities, and the staff is largely uncaring. Their one consolation is that they have each other, one kind nurse, and their imaginations. But when Belleview is condemned, they're threatened with being broken up and each placed in different hospitals.
Brick, one of the boys, longs so hard to be somewhere else that he unexpectedly finds himself in a new world, where he sees flowers and sunrises for the first time. And some more mysterious things as well. He also finds that the world has healing properties--not an instant cure, but enough that them all going there and surviving there is feasible. He manages to teleport his friends and their nurse, who loves them and also longs to escape, to the world. But once they're there, they find new dangers they need to survive...
I loved this weird little book. It's full of things I love - psychic kids, healing and recovery, survival, suspense, portals, exploring a strange new world, outcasts, friendship, and coziness coexisting with danger. It's slightly dated but not as much as you might expect - racial diversity is described in somewhat dated ways, but the characters aren't stereotypes.
There is magical disability healing, but it happens slowly enough that the entire book is still about disabled characters doing stuff, and they're never seen as lesser because they're disabled. (They clearly could have stayed paralyzed but still had happy lives on Earth if their circumstances weren't so awful - if they could have stayed together, been treated well, and been taken out to spend time in nature.)
The book ends at a "and there will be many more adventures" point which is sudden but satisfying; I would have liked to have read more, but if there had been more, I'm pretty sure I would have still liked the first part best, while they were all just exploring the new world and figuring out how to survive in it.
Only $1.99 on Kindle!
The Magic Meadow
Brick, one of the boys, longs so hard to be somewhere else that he unexpectedly finds himself in a new world, where he sees flowers and sunrises for the first time. And some more mysterious things as well. He also finds that the world has healing properties--not an instant cure, but enough that them all going there and surviving there is feasible. He manages to teleport his friends and their nurse, who loves them and also longs to escape, to the world. But once they're there, they find new dangers they need to survive...
I loved this weird little book. It's full of things I love - psychic kids, healing and recovery, survival, suspense, portals, exploring a strange new world, outcasts, friendship, and coziness coexisting with danger. It's slightly dated but not as much as you might expect - racial diversity is described in somewhat dated ways, but the characters aren't stereotypes.
There is magical disability healing, but it happens slowly enough that the entire book is still about disabled characters doing stuff, and they're never seen as lesser because they're disabled. (They clearly could have stayed paralyzed but still had happy lives on Earth if their circumstances weren't so awful - if they could have stayed together, been treated well, and been taken out to spend time in nature.)
The book ends at a "and there will be many more adventures" point which is sudden but satisfying; I would have liked to have read more, but if there had been more, I'm pretty sure I would have still liked the first part best, while they were all just exploring the new world and figuring out how to survive in it.
Only $1.99 on Kindle!
The Magic Meadow
