The Girl with the Glass Bird

Gr 4–7—Edie Wilson is a thoroughly unhappy child. An orphan whose grandmother has just moved to a nursing home, she is sent to live with her inattentive aunt and vicious cousins. Edie sees no escape until Cousin Charles shows up. Her aunt's brother, he's no blood relation, but he does happen to be looking for a child her exact age to go on an undercover mission to her mother's old boarding school, Knights Haddon. Her job is to befriend a young Russian aristocrat named Anastasia and determine whether the girl is being terrorized or if she is completely insane. Edie discovers the truth surrounding Anastasia is far more complicated, and dangerous, than she could possibly have imagined. Katey Sobey's narration is excellent, neatly delineating the children from the adults and somehow managing to give unique voices to all the residents of the all-girls school.