A sparkling new series about two best friends on the adventure of a lifetime! Maggie’s been waiting for her best friend Abby to get home from Camp Cantaloupe for SIX. WHOLE. WEEKS. But now that Abby’s finally home, she’s…different. All New Abby wants to do is talk about camp things and plan campy activities—she even has the nerve to call Maggie’s massive, award-worthy pillow fort a “cabin.”   But hey, at least she’s willing to build a “cabin” of her own. And when Maggie discovers that a pillow in the back of her fort mysteriously leads right into Abby’s new one, the two friends are suddenly just an arm’s length away. Soon they’re adding links and building more forts, until Maggie looks behind one pillow too many and finds herself face-to-face with...the authorities.  Turns out their little pillow fort network isn’t the first to exist. A massive network of linked-up pillow and sofa forts already spans the globe, and the kids who run it are not happy with Maggie and Abby. With just three days to pass their outrageous entrance requirements or lose the links forever, Maggie and Abby pull out all the stops to try to save their network. There’s only a little bit of summer left to burn, and Maggie and Abby are both determined to win back their pillow fort freedom. But can their friendship—and their scrappy homemade network—survive the mission? Gr 3–6—Maggie has spent the last six weeks lonely and bored, waiting for her best friend and across-the-street neighbor, Abby, to return from Camp Cantaloupe. Maggie assumes that everything will be the same as before, but when Abby returns, she only talks about camp and doesn't want to play their old games. The exception is the pillow fort that Maggie built in her living room. Abby builds one of her own and the girls discover that the pillow forts magically connect through a mysterious link. The next day they find another link, to Maggie's Uncle Joe who is doing whale research in Alaska. That night Maggie is taken to visit the council of the North American Founding and Allied Forts Alliance (NAFAFA). She discovers that not only are there connected pillow forts all over North America, but also to keep the portals open and be able to build more, she and Abby must to do a good deed in the next three days. NAFAFA council politics complicate their attempts and when their parents find out about the pillow forts, it looks like the links may be closed forever. A mysterious key found in the Le Petit Salon in Versailles may have the answer to all their problems and sets up the cliffhanger ending, which clearly marks this as the first in a series. This is not without appeal. Unfortunately, the playfulness of the premise is marred by the convoluted explanations of the magical world-building, and the author's attempts at exploring changing friendships feels oversimplified. VERDICT An intriguing premise is made confusing by clunky plotting and character development. An additional purchase.—Kefira Phillipe, Nichols Middle School, Evanston, IL "Ridiculously irresistible" -Kirkus - "A rollicking good time" -Booklist - "A magical adventure!" -Dav Pilkey, creator of CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS Will Taylor is a Seattle-based author and marketing writer who when not writing can be found searching for the perfect bakery and completely losing his cool when he meets longhaired dachshunds. His books include  Maggie & Abby's Neverending Pillow Fort;   Maggie & Abby and the Shipwreck Treehouse; Slimed; Catch That Dog!;  the award-winning  The Language of Seabirds ; and the  School for Wicked Witches  series.