Rufus is looking forward to spending the summer at Feylawn with Grandpa Jack, but his father decrees that this will be a "turnaround summer" during which Rufus will develop "excellence" like his cousin Abigail. Rufus' mom will be gone all summer, working at a hospital where she can make better money than in their town of Galosh; Rufus' dad has been unemployed for months, and his anxiety is translating into pressure on Rufus.

And when Grandpa Jack discovers a toy train engine, and Rufus rings its bell, everything at Feylawn gets much, much stranger: suddenly, Rufus is clear-eyed, and he sees fairies, including Iris, who ropes him into helping to save the fairies, since it was Rufus' great-grandmother who got them into their current predicament: stuck in the human world, unable to travel back into the Green World, and dying because of it.

Rufus and Abigail wind up working together to collect all of the pieces of the train in order to rescue the fairies, but there are many forces lined up against them, including Abigail's mom and Rufus' dad; a faction of fairies called the All-Outers; goblins who want the train for themselves; and otherworldly umbrals, whose smoke "dimpsies" humans, making them relive bad memories before disappearing them.

Marvelous and magical, full of difficult decisions and high stakes.

See also: Spiderwick Chronicles

Quotes

This was not an ordinary kind of peculiar. (36)

Nimble fingers of smoke poked into the drawers of his mind, pulling out memories like folded clothes. (104)

His father's superpower...was taking something that should be fun and making it sound incredibly boring. (117)

"All the finished stories will begin again." (The Gifts of Glistening Glen, 207)

There was a gap where the memory belonged, like a missing tooth. (219)

"Truth is, Rufus, if you get in the habit of denying things about yourself for long enough, it just becomes second nature." (247)

"You can't save someone who won't save themselves." (260)

"Death is part of the logic of your world. Everybody gets a turn and then that turn is over. No do-overs." (Iris, 291)

"But without mistakes, there wouldn't be stories." (Rufus, 320) ( )