A standalone mystery from a New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award-winning author set in a contemporary world tinged with magic, in which two sisters spend summer vacation in a small town in the shadows of abandoned amusement park that is not what it seems.
Ivy and Dahlia Vicar know this summer’s trip to visit friends in Rialto, Missouri, is going to be different from their usual family vacations.
Twelve-year-old Dahlia, an artist who lives with anxiety, is looking forward to something new. Rialto, after all, has its own abandoned theme park! But mystery-loving, fourteen-year-old Ivy is struggling with how to be the right kind of big sister to Dahlia, and longs for the way things—especially vacations—were when they were younger.
In Rialto, it quickly becomes clear that this vacation will also be different in totally unexpected ways. For one thing, the town stands in the middle of an improbable forest that, according to local legend, swallowed it overnight decades before. Then there are Dahlia’s even more improbable sightings of impossible creatures—a giraffe with antlers and a leopard with wings. And there’s their new friend Remy, whose family inherited the house they’re all staying in from an aunt who left bequests for local friends that Remy must personally distribute.
When he enlists Ivy and Dahlia to help deliver these gifts, they find themselves drawn into a mystery going back to the time when Rialto Park was still open. And it begins to seem that, if they are going to help Remy solve it, they will have to find a way to believe in magic.
Themes of friendship, family, mental health, and resilience are expertly woven through this magical, richly imagined story of two sisters and an enigmatic town that transforms everyone who visits it.
With cover art from Arch Apolar and interior illustrations by James Firnhaber.
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Praise for Rialto:
“Rialto made me feel like I was a kid reader again, completely lost in the pages of a novel while the world around me thrummed with mystery and magic and possibility. It is a testament to that singular capacity of kids’ books to tickle our brains, vitalize our hearts, and open our minds up to wonder. Truly, one of the most remarkable books I’ve ever read.” (Anne Ursu, award-winning author of The Troubled Girls of Dragomir Academy)
“I lost myself in the mystery of Rialto—a once-magical amusement park that has inexplicably closed itself off to the world; its setting, creatures, and inhabitants are so vivid I kept forgetting it’s not real. At least, I think it’s not real. And while Remy, Ivy, and Dahlia try to discover whythe park has locked everyone out, we are also treated to one of the most sensitive, realistic explorations of mental health I’ve yet seen in a middle grade novel. Kate Milford has become one of our most talented and lyrical stylists. She’s always been one of our best storytellers.” (Adam Gidwitz, New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor–winning author of The Inquisitor’s Tale)
“A hidden amusement park, carousel animals that come to life and a mystery mixed with magic–Rialto is the fantasy book kids dream of reading! With rich detail and expertise, Kate Milford’s writing enthralls, making readers feel as if they, themselves, have crossed over into the world of Rialto. A marvelous, wonder of a novel that transports you to worlds you won’t ever want to leave.” (Grace Lin, New York Times bestselling, Newbery Honor–winning author of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon)
“Rialto begs us to “pretend if you need to, believe if you can,” and then gives us so much to believe in. This is a book constructed of antique ephemera, rich lore, twisty puzzles, and lilting moments of magic, but what really makes the book shine is how real its characters are, how deeply honest their emotions, and how much Rialto has to teach us about living in our world. The best book I’ve read in a long time.” (Laurel Snyder, author of National Book Award Nominee Orphan Island)
“Kate Milford is not just an author but an architect. Rialto is not just a story but a living, breathing place, vast and haunting and endless, that will transport you to a world of endless wonders, impossible creatures, and haunting mystery. I want to compare it to Tuck Everlasting and The Magician’s Nephew and Bridge to Terabithia — but the truth is, there is nothing like this book. You simply must read it.” (Jonathan Auxier, New York Times bestselling author of The Night Gardener)