A grieving girl accidentally slips into an alternate magical world inhabited by eerie, mystical creatures from her dead mother's sketchbook. Twelve-year-old Eden is mourning the loss of her mother when she and her father make their first visit to Safina Island, off the coast of Georgia, to meet her maternal relatives. Eden's connection to them is tenuous, mostly consisting of the birthday cards containing pressed flowers sent by her great-aunt; Eden's mother left the island when she was 12 following a bad accident, and she never wanted to return. Eden and her dad are going to participate in the annual celebration honoring the family's purchase of half the island after they received their freedom from slavery. While staying in her mother's childhood room, Eden looks through old boxes in the closet and finds, among the many sketchbooks containing nature drawings, one filled with creepy and terrifying images of a land called Everdark. Eden starts traveling there in her dreams until one day, while following a black cat around the island, she enters a portal, becomes trapped in this world, and must use her own hidden magic to find a way out. The complex narrative portrays multifaceted characters as it weaves together history, magic, and grief. Readers will enjoy the strong pacing along with learning about the island's well-described mythology and root magic. Most characters are Black. A textured, suspenseful story that traverses an island's timeline and a family's heritage. (Paranormal. 9-13) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Following her botanist mother's death, 12-year-old Eden Gardener travels with her father to her mother's birthplace, which her mom mysteriously left following a grave injury at age 12. On Safina Island, off the coast of Georgia, Eden meets her extended maternal relations--descendants of the formerly enslaved inhabitants who've owned the north side of the island since the Civil War's end--as they prepare to celebrate the anniversary of purchasing the land. She encounters, too, a bevy of frightening creatures in her mother's childhood sketchbook, including a hauntingly beautiful witch in a spirit world known as Everdark. After passing into Everdark through a dark portal, Eden learns that the Witch of Everdark wants to take Eden as her own daughter; it will require all of Eden's wits, and the magic she inherited from her mother, to escape. Strong (Just South of Home) sets an impeccable scene, imbuing Safina Island with a turbulent history and fully fleshed culture that stands in stark relief to Everdark's opulence. Though interactions can have an RPG feel, undercutting character connection, Strong portrays the island's mythos, and Everdark's extraordinary dangers, to bone-chilling perfection. Ages: 8--12. Agent: Patrice Caldwell, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Sept.)