How come no one told me about the Wayward Children series ages ago?!

I read all three of the Wayward Children series books in a week. It would have been more like four days, but I was on a trip for three of those days and didn’t have a lot of time for reading. The last book, Beneath the Sugar Sky, I started at 1pm today and finished at 7pm, and I was working for part of that time.

So yeah, I loved these books.

This isn’t a linear series, but instead three interconnected, stand-alone novellas, though I will say the third one should be read last. I read Every Heart a Doorway, then Down Among the Sticks and Bones, then Beneath the Sugar Sky, figuring publishing order was a good way to go. All the novellas are set in a world where children find doorways, the same way children in books have been finding doorways to magical worlds probably since books were invented. But these children are removed from their magical worlds, and these books are about what happens after that.

They are also full of empathy, understanding of being a teenager (especially being a teenage girl), and diversity in sexuality and gender expression, which is always refreshing to see. The insight on display is also touching and intense: I would find myself ready to highlight a passage and then see that a few hundred people had highlighted the same poignant words. Usually those were words that focused on kindness and on the importance of helping out your fellow humans, because they are fellow humans.

I don’t think these books will appeal to everyone: they are still fairy stories, after all. But they’re beautiful, and I hope everyone gives the books a try.