The Midnight Dress - Hardcover

Foxlee, Karen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375856455 ISBN 13: 9780375856457

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2013

Synopsis

Quiet misfit Rose doesn't expect to fall in love with the sleepy beach town of Leonora. Nor does she expect to become fast friends with beautiful, vivacious Pearl Kelly, organizer of the high school float at the annual Harvest Festival parade. It's better not to get too attached when Rose and her father live on the road, driving their caravan from one place to the next whenever her dad gets itchy feet. But Rose can't resist the mysterious charms of the town or the popular girl, try as she might.

Pearl convinces Rose to visit Edie Baker, once a renowned dressmaker, now a rumored witch. Together Rose and Edie hand-stitch an unforgettable dress of midnight blue for Rose to wear at the Harvest Festival—a dress that will have long-lasting consequences on life in Leonora, a dress that will seal the fate of one of the girls. Karen Foxlee's breathtaking novel weaves friendship, magic, and a murder mystery into something moving, real, and distinctly original.

About this title

About the Author:

KAREN FOXLEE is the author of The Anatomy of Wings, winner of the Commonweath Writer's Prize and a Parents' Choice Gold Winner. She lives in Gympie, Australia.

From Booklist:

“I just want a dark dress. Maybe black. I like dark things.” This is what 16-year-old Rose Lovell tells Edie Baker, the reclusive dressmaker her new classmates have practically dared her to visit. Like Edie, Rose has a mysterious, transient past, and she has come to embody Edie’s memory of her own potent years on the road. But for stoic Rose, a dazzling new friend and confidant, Pearl, has given meaning and stability to her new life in Leonora, the coastal Australian town where she has just arrived with her unstable, nomadic father. As Pearl and Rose prepare with Edie’s help for the town’s harvest festival, they test the limits of their burgeoning friendship, stir up old secrets, and are entwined in a tragedy that leaves the town questioning Edie’s past and the girls’ futures. Though the novel is at times weighed down by multiple story layers, Foxlee (The Anatomy of Wings, 2009) depicts the depths of affection and the threat of loss and creates a mystical, macabre work that won’t be quickly forgotten. Grades 10-12. --Lexi Walters Wright

About this edition

• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 0375856455
• ISBN 13: 9780375856457
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288