What if your small town was more than it seemed? What if something you thought was a gift was starting to look like a curse? Doug Manion, newly thirteen, has been hearing voices: at best, they help him catch unsuspecting opponents in the increasingly competitive games of hide-and-seekhe and his friends play; at their worst—and strangest—they let him overhear his parents' plans to send him to boarding school. These plans have to wait, however, when Doug and two friends take a fateful dip in Toaster Pond and end up in a parallel world. Surfacing in a town called Sangerfield, they are no longer just boys playing games; they are the best hope of Lord Eisenhut to find the Gem of Gicalma, a powerful stone that will protect Sanger Castle from the attacks of Ludicrous Zwevil. Doug and his friends must win this game of hide-and-seek—for this time they are playing for their lives.

Will middle schoolers fall to the charms of a book that has the heroes doing farm chores? They likely will when that book blends reality with the unlimited imaginations of what could happen when the place you live in is much more magical than you suspected. For those readers of all ages, learning about the fantasy world of Waterville will be a delight.

Patty Louise, Publisher, The Waterville Times.

It will do serious or cynical readers absolutely no good to try to stay grounded in fact or reality: willing or not, they will be swept along on the imaginary adventures and exploits that await them in the magical waters - and in the pages - of 'Toaster Pond.'

PsBrown, artist and historian, Waterville, New York

Peter de Witt is an adjunct professor in the graduate school of education at the College of Saint Rose. He lives in Albany, New York.

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