Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. Though reveals are clearly telegraphed, an atmospherically rendered villain and a layered portrait of two friends intent on rescuing each other elevate this trilogy opener. In this novel of ghosts, memory, and story, Anderson ( Midnight at the Electric) weaves components of children’s literature mainstays into a dreamlike first-person narrative. But the sight also places Rosie, and others, in danger of that witch and her emissaries. Helping to locate an old volume, The Witch Hunter’s Guide to the Universe, the ghosts disclose the existence of 13 witches who conjure the world’s evil, Rosie’s mother’s past as the last known witch hunter, and the root of Rosie’s mother’s neglect in the covetous Memory Thief’s curse. When her best friend, assertive and athletic Germ, suggests that the new sixth graders abandon childish things, Rosie burns her stories, inadvertently unlocking a special sight that reveals the ghosts-some friendly, some menacing-coexisting in her home.

The knowledge of her beloved stories is an arsenal in this world, but to unlock their power, Rosie must dare to have hope and believe in herself in the face of daunting odds.In this heavily allusive fantasy set in coastal Maine, narrator Rosie, an avid fantasy writer, lives alone with her neglectful mother, leaving herself parental notes (“You look taller today, sweetie”). Here, words are weapons against the darkness, and witch hunters are those brave enough to wield their imaginations in the face of the unthinkable. In her quest to save her mom-and with her wild, loyal friend “Germ” by her side-Rosie will find the layers hidden under the reality she only thought she knew: where ghosts linger as shades of the past, where clouds witness the world, and a ladder dangles from the moon leading to something bigger and more. And it is this witch who has cursed Rosie’s mother. Booklist (starred review) Perfect for fans of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, this fantastical and heartfelt first book in a new trilogy from critically acclaimed and New York Times bestselling author Jodi Lynn Anderson follows a girl who must defeat thirteen evil witches. One of these witches-the Memory Thief-holds an insidious power to steal our most precious treasures: our memories. This expertly crafted story thrums with magic, love, and tense action.

Then, on the night Rosie decides to throw her stories away forever, an invisible ally helps her discover the Witch Hunter’s Guide to the Universe, a book that claims that all of the evil in the world stems from thirteen witches who are unseen.but also unstoppable. All her life, Rosie has known this.and turned to stories for comfort. Twelve-year-old Rosie Oaks’s mom is missing whatever it is that makes mothers love their daughters.

The memory thief by jodi lynn anderson