The Girl who Kept the Castle

Nevermoor meets Howl’s Moving Castle in this captivating middle grade fantasy solo debut about a girl who must save the only home she’s ever known from destruction when a not-dead wizard’s competition to see who will inherit his title goes awry.

Faye, a twelve-year-old groundskeeper’s daughter, has always lived at Wizard West’s magical mansion, Celurdur. When she has to tell the ancient Wizard West’s ghost that he is dead, a problem immediately arises: without a successor to tend to the house’s magical foundations, Celurdur will fall apart at the next new moon.

Wizard West declares that he will host a competition to choose a child worthy of inheriting his legacy. Soon, Faye is fighting an uphill battle to keep things running smoothly behind the scenes, while also interacting with rude potential apprentices. But when it’s revealed that a servant of the Shadow Queen has infiltrated the contest with the goal of destroying Celurdur to remove the powerful spell that has imprisoned their mistress, Faye learns that her battle is much bigger than she could have ever anticipated.

In this delightful middle grade duology starter, Faye must try to save the home she loves very much as the fate of the kingdom rests on her shoulders.

Ryan Graudin is the award-winning author of several young adult novels, including the Carnegie nominated Wolf By Wolf duology, Invictus, and The Walled City. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband and two daughters.