Lisa Mantchev

Thirteen-year-old Bertie strives to save Theater Illuminata, the only home she has ever known, but is hindered by the Players who magically live on there, especially Ariel, who is willing to destroy the Book at the center of the magic in order to escape into the outside world.

When her big sister is too busy to play "Let's pretend" and tell entertaining stories, a little sister creates Sister Day.

"A tiny narwhal in a fishbowl discovers that sometimes the difference between staying home and a big adventure is a group of loving friends"--

Bertie thinks that to complete her quest to have a true family she need only reunite her father, the Scrimshander, with her mother, Ophelia, but complications arise and she is torn between her responsibilities and the dream of flying free, just as she is torn between Nate and Ariel.

When the surgeon who provided her with a clockwork heart is put on trial for murder, Penny Farthing's parents are kidnapped and Penny and her brother receive a ransom note demanding the research her parents kept on the procedures of her surgery.