Winterborne Home for Vengeance and Valor

January 6, 2020
In this entertaining adventure reminiscent of Annie, five precocious foster siblings discover secrets in their sprawling new home. April, 12, has been in the foster system ever since her mother abandoned her with nothing but an ornate key and promise of her return. When the key turns out to bear the crest of the fabulously wealthy Winterborne family—whose sole heir, Gabriel, vanished a decade prior after his family was killed—April sneaks into the family’s just-opened museum exhibit, intent on finding what it might unlock. She accidentally sets the exhibit aflame, and when she awakens in the hospital, April and several other children, including genius Sadie, who is black, and Londoner con artist Colin, are brought to Winterborne House as an effort to turn it into a group home. Once there, April discovers that Gabriel is alive, hiding in the mansion’s secret passages, and has a good reason for remaining hidden for so long—someone’s fiendish plan, which the children must help him thwart. In her middle grade debut, Carter (Not If I Save You First) offers up mystery, intrigue, and swashbuckling action in a rollicking story of long-lost secrets and found family. Ages 10–12. Agent: Kristin Nelson, Nelson Literary Agency.