June 2024 Middle Grade Book Selection | First Editions Club

New York, NY: Simon and Schuster (June 4, 2024)

First Edition. Signed by translator Cathrin Wirtz.

As new in dust jacket.

An enchanting middle grade fantasy tale, translated from German and steeped in Welsh myths and legends, about two intrepid friends who are tricked into opening the door to an enchanted world--only to get trapped inside. The lush, expressive writing evokes middle grade classics, reminding fans of The Dark is Rising, The Never-ending Story, and The Chronicles of Narnia.

For fans of the Wilderlore and Skandar series comes a thrilling middle grade fantasy adventure steeped in Welsh myths and legends about two intrepid friends who are tricked into opening the door to an enchanted world—only to get trapped inside.

On a summer holiday in Wales, Portia and Ben find a mysterious door set in a bramble hedge in the middle of a forest. If the old stories about the wonders and dangers of the Otherworld hadn’t long been forgotten, they may have realized the door was a portal to the perilous realm and should never be opened…

Robin Goodfellow, the man with the fox shadow, needs someone to open the door in the brambles so he can finally return home, and he’s willing to use the children’s curiosity to his advantage and lures Portia under the guise of his innocent fox form.

Once the portal is open, great danger arises, and Ben and Portia struggle to stop a powerful evil threatening both the human and the fairy worlds as they find themselves stuck in the wrong realm.

Kathrin Tordasi was born in the south of Germany and has been a bookworm since she was little and started making up her own stories when her dad gave her his old typewriter. She dreamt of becoming an explorer, a pirate, or a writer and eventually decided to go for the third option (mostly because she gets horribly seasick). After spending a year in Bangor, Wales, she came up with the idea for a book about a girl who follows a fox into Faerie. Bramble Fox was first published in German, and now it has been translated into English as Blackberry Fox. Kathrin lives in Berlin where she can usually be found browsing through local bookshops, writing in cafés, or exploring the nearby lakes and forests.

Cathrin Wirtz was born near Cologne but has lived in the United States for more than a decade. She divides her time between Brooklyn, New York, and the coast of Maine.