The House at the Edge of Magic

Nine is an orphan pickpocket determined to escape her life in the Nest of a Thousand Treasures where she’s one of many thieves only valued for what they can steal. When she lifts a house-shaped ornament from a mysterious woman’s purse, she knocks on its tiny door and watches it grow into a huge, higgledy-piggledy building. Inside, Nine meets the eccentric people who call the magical house their home: Dr. Spoon the alchemist, Flabberghast the young wizard and competitive hopscotch-er, and Eric the troll housekeeper with a strong emotional attachment to his feather duster.

Nine and her friends have broken the curse on their marvelous, magical house and are free to travel the worlds once more! Their first stop: the Wizarding Hopscotch Championships. There’s only one problem: the house is nervous about traveling and gets the hiccups! Bouncing from world to world with every hic!, they finally land at the championships, only for Flabberghast to have an unfortunate run-in with square number nine that leaves them all faced with the terrible Tower at the End of Time.

Nine and her friends have cured the house’s hiccups and are off to the strange and utterly unpredictable Back of Beyond in search of Professor Dish—Spoon’s best friend and partner in all things alchemy. When they find Dish trapped by the greedy witch Ophidia in the basement of a particularly marvelous shop, it soon becomes clear they’re going to need something more than Flabberghast’s dicey magic and Nine’s quick thinking to triumph this time. Perhaps they can find a rather clever witch, one particularly good at curses…