Bestselling author Alice Hoffman’s bewitching Nightbird is perfect for ages 10-13: love and friendship empower a lonely girl to embrace her uniqueness and discover her strengths.   Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumored to hide a monster. And two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig’s family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It’s time to break the spell.   Praise Nominated for: The Great Stone Face Award (NH) Rebecca Caudill Young Readers’ Book Award (Illinois) The Black-Eyed Susan Book Award (Maryland) “Hoffman reminds us that there are secrets everywhere . . . Nightbird soars.” — The New York Times   “Alice Hoffman has a gift for melding magic and realism in a way that makes nearly anything seem possible.” — Shelf Awareness, Starred   “The mix of romance and magic is irresistible.” — Kirkus Reviews What Other Authors Are Saying “I love the way Alice Hoffman creates the most ordinary people and then turns their lives magical. . . . [ Nightbird ] is like reentering a wonderful dream that you vaguely remember.” —Lois Lowry, two-time Newbery Medal–winning author of The Giver     Gr 4–6—A sweet, if somewhat uneven middle grade tale by beloved adult author Hoffman. Twig is the daughter of the best baker in the town of Sidwell, NY. But Twig has a secret—the town doesn't know that she has an older brother, James, hidden away because of his large black wings, a result of the curse on the men in their family. James's clandestine nighttime jaunts around Sidwell have led fractious locals to talk of hunting down "the monster" in their midst. When a new family moves into the cottage that belonged to the witch who cursed Twig's ancestor, events are set in motion that will change all of their lives forever. Hoffman juggles multiple themes: an environmental thread, with a focus on the rare owls in the woods around Twig's home; a broken family thread (Twig hasn't seen or heard from her father since she was a toddler); a friendship tale of outsiders finding each other; along with bits of romance, curses, and magic. A clever narrator, beautiful imagery, and the quirky cast of secondary characters who populate the oddball town are the bright spots in this mix of fantasy and mystery. Unfortunately, the climax ties every plot line together neatly, and the overly pat ending undercuts an otherwise sophisticated narrative. Still, the spunky protagonist, copious descriptions of mouth-watering baked goods, and terrific cover art guarantee this magical story will find an audience.—Elisabeth Gattullo Marrocolla, Darien Library, CT Praise for Nightbird “Hoffman reminds us that there are secrets everywhere . . . Nightbird soars.” — The New York Times   “Alice Hoffman has a gift for melding magic and realism in a way that makes nearly anything seem possible.” — Shelf Awareness, Starred   “The mix of romance and magic is irresistible.” — Kirkus Reviews Alice Hoffman is the author of more than thirty bestselling works of fiction, including Practical Magic, a major motion picture; Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club selection; the highly praised historical novel The Dovekeepers ; and, most recently, The Museum of Extraordinary Things . Her books for teens include Green Angel, Green Witch, Incantation, The Fortelling, and Aquamarine, also a major motion picture, starring Emma Roberts. Visit her online at alicehoffman.com. You can't believe everything you hear, not even in Sidwell, Massachusetts, where every person is said to tell the truth and the apples are so sweet people come from as far as New York City during the apple festival. There are rumors that a mysterious creature lives in our town. Some people insist it's a bird bigger than an eagle; others say it's a dragon, or an oversized bat that resembles a person. Certainly this being, human or animal or something in between, exists nowhere else in this world. Children whisper that we have a monster in our midst, half man, half myth, and that fairy tales are real in Berkshire County. At the Sidwell General Store and at the gas station tourists can buy T-shirts decorated with a red-eyed winged beast with visit sidwell printed underneath. Every time I see one of these shirts in a shop, I casually drop it into the garbage bin. In my opinion, people should be careful about the stories they tell. All the same, whenever things go missing the monster is blamed. Weekends are the worst times for these odd thefts. Bread deliveries to the Starline Diner are several loaves short of the regular order. Clothes hanging on the line vanish. I know there's no such thing as a monster, but the thief has struck my family, as a matter of fact. One minute there were four pies sitting out on the kitchen counter to cool, and the next minute the back door was left open and one of the pies was missing. An old quilt left out on our p