In an Absent Dream 

Katherine Lundy is a quiet eight-year-old child. She is smart but keeps to herself and doesn’t have any friends. She finds comfort in routine and rules, and solitary activities become her life. After a typical day at school, with her nose in a book, Katherine doesn’t notice she’s taken a different path home. And, before she knows it, she is standing in front of a strange tree with a door. On the other side is a different world where value is calculated in every question asked and worth is found in every act. There she finds her true home and friends; it is everything she could wish for. Over the years, Lundy travels between the two worlds, but soon she will have to make a choice – reality or her dream. Will the cost be worth it?

Although this is the fourth book in the Wayward Children series, you do not need to read them in order. I do, however, recommend picking up the first book, Every Heart a Doorway, to follow Lundy’s story completely. Written for young adults, In an Absent Dream is a charming book for anyone who remembers being a child and who looked for a place to hide from the real world.