Common Sense Media Review
By Darienne Stewart
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Magical, heartbreaking story about family and friendship.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 8+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
Gracie Lockwood, 12, lives a fairly normal life (aside from the occasional run-in with a migrating dragon) until a Dark Cloud approaches her home to claim a soul. Fearing for the life of Gracie's sickly young brother, Sam, her family flees, taking orphaned friend Oliver with them aboard their Winnebago in a desperate search for the Extraordinary World, a place that might not even exist. They need to cross through dangerously wild territory, from the witch villages in the Great Smoky Mountains to the Kraken menacing the Southern Sea. Laughed at by skeptics, they hope to reach the edge of their flat world and discover the legendary Extraordinary World, a land where monsters -- and Dark Clouds -- can't break up their family.
Is It Any Good?
Family, with all its delights and frustrations, anchors this winning fantasy that combines heartbreakingly realistic characters with a magically wild setting. Charming, observant Gracie straddles the line between childhood and adolescence, writing with drama and imaginative flair one moment and mature insight the next. In MY DIARY FROM THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, author Jodi Lynn Anderson depicts the familiar world skewed through a magical lens.
As with any family on a road trip, the Lockwoods share breathtaking experiences and push one another away with fractious squabbling. The monster-world twists -- westward railroads torn up by yetis and trolls, world war averted by poltergeists disrupting factories -- are a cleverly entertaining backdrop to a moving look at family, fate, and having the courage to move on.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the appeal of fantasy stories set in alternate versions of the real world. Do you prefer these to fully fabricated fantasy worlds?
Which part of the story most caught your interest here: the family relationships or the fantasy background?
Try writing a story taking an historical event and reimagining it with a fantasy twist.
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Fantasy
- Topics : Fantasy ( Magic ) , Adventures , Family Stories ( Siblings )
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Aladdin
- Publication date : November 3, 2015
- Publisher's recommended age(s) : 8 - 12
- Number of pages : 432
- Available on : Nook, Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
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