Books

SUMMER 2001. Just days before her eighth birthday, Mily trips into a flowering patch of Pitcher’s thistle, loses half her marbles, and ends up with magic bugs in her head. The bugs give Mily a Higher Sense—superhuman sight and hearing. But Mily’s extraordinary new abilities also grant her startling new insights.

In “Diana,” a region inspired by real-life Indiana, society operates like a complex card game. Adults are organized in ranks: Numbers (“Pipt”), Faces, and Aces; and sorted by suits: Spades, Hearts, Clubs, and Diamonds. Mily’s dad, Dog, is a new Face: a Jack of Spades. With Clubs in power, Black Jacks get raised to even higher status—stationing Dog just to the left of the Top Trump, and making him a bower of land use policy in the months leading up to unforeseen crises. Mily’s keen observation skills and enhanced senses start coming into focus. A Code Red Alert calls for Lockdown following a terrorist attack in the east. Mily’s family is spirited into Crossroads, a secret network of fortified subway stations. Sheltered in place, Mily thinks there’s gotta be a lot more going on than meets the eye—a feeling growing with every chance encounter with manners of magic and mystery.

Through a child’s eyes, Mily sees the harsh challenges of a world wracked by human conflict and climate change. This tale invites readers of all ages to jump into the action and wonder where the next tunnel leads.