Where to find it: Available at your local library or bookstore! (Try searching on Worldcat or Bookshop.org.)
What is it, in summary?: Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is a boarding school for teens exiled from fantasy worlds. AKA… where do you go after Narnia throws you out?
Onishi Sumi's parents wanted her to be quiet, still, and focused, the perfect daughter of a powerful corporate empire. Unfortunately for them, she escaped into Confection, a nonsensical land of sweets where she was finally able to be the exuberant, always-moving girl she'd always wanted to be. Despite the prophecy that she'd overthrow the tyrannous Queen of Cakes, she was ultimately exiled back to the world she came from.
Book 1/book 3 spoilers: Sumi dies in book 1, but they bake her a new body out of candy in book 3.
As a child, Kade West was snatched by fairies to be their champion against the Goblin Empire. When he killed the Goblin King, the king named him Goblin Prince-in-Waiting with his dying breath, prompting Kade to start figuring out his gender. But when Kade changed his pronouns, the fairies claimed he'd sold them a false bill of goods and threw him back to the world he came from. He made the best of a bad situation, and now he's a tailor and researcher who helps run his great aunt Eleanor's boarding school. He doesn't want to ever go back to Prism, the fairyland he was exiled from.
Book 9 spoilers: But the goblins still want him to be their prince — if he can ever stand to return.
Nancy Whitman belongs in the Halls of the Dead, where she serves the Lord and Lady of the Dead as a living statue. Silence and stillness come naturally to her, and she despises the hot, fast world of the living. She doesn't want to be attending Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, she doesn’t want to have a crush on Kade, and she especially doesn't want to be suspected of a string of murders among the student body. Unfortunately for her, that's what's happening.
Over a hundred years ago, Eleanor West was known as little Ely West, the Wayward Girl, and in her heart, that's who she still is. Blessed with one of the rare stable doors between worlds, Eleanor traveled into a nonsensical world countless times as a child, until her mind became too mature for her to survive there. Now, she's the eccentric headmistress of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, having dedicated her life to caring for the children of the doors. She dreams of the day when her mind will finally deteriorate from age enough that she'll be able to live in nonsense again.
What do you love about it?: Sumi! I’m here for Sumi. I love that she's weird and scattered and competent and creepy. I love that she always needs something to do with her hands. I love that she’s blink-and-you-miss-it implied to be plural in book 5, I love that she has undiagnosed ADHD (not canon, but it’s really obvious if you stop and think about it), I love that she’s queer and Japanese American.
And man, Kade’s awesome too. I mean, he’s a goblin prince-in-waiting who lives in an attic full of fabric and books. His hobby is mapping worlds. That’s super cool.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Genfic, pre-canon, post-canon, missing scenes, Kade’s research
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:
For Nancy and Eleanor, read Every Heart a Doorway (book 1). (Nancy also appears in chapters 5 and 6 of Beneath the Sugar Sky, which is book 3. Eleanor appears in every book except for books 2 and 6, but most of her page time is in book 1.)
For Sumi and Kade, you have a lot of options!
If you like murder mysteries, read Every Heart a Doorway (book 1)
If you like candyland, read Beneath the Sugar Sky (book 3; sequel to book 1; set partly in Confection, Sumi’s world)
If you like vampires and mad scientists, read Come Tumbling Down (book 5; sequel to books 1 & 2)
If you like scary dystopian boarding schools, read Where the Drowned Girls Go (book 7; sequel to books 3 & 5, with a character from book 6; just Sumi, not Kade)
If you like magic lost-and-found shops, read Mislaid in Parts Half-Unknown (book 9; sequel to books 7 & 8; set partly in Prism, Kade’s world)
Content warnings: Murder (mostly in books 1, 2, 3, 5, & 7), some gore, creepiness, references to bigotry, discussion of war (mostly in books 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, & 9), restrictive eating (book 1 only, but mentioned in book 3 and possibly others), kid who used to have cancer (he got magically healed, he's fine, there are some brief concerns about it coming back but it doesn't) (book 3 only, but mentioned in books 1, 3, 5, & 9), animated skeletons (on-page only in book 3, but mentioned as romantic partners in books 1, 3, 5, & 9), discussion of eating sentient beings, on-page institutional abuse of children/teens (book 7 only), sexual grooming of a child (on-page in book 8, discussed in book 9)
Wayward Children Series by Seanan McGuire (Books)
Media: Books
Approx length: ~200 pages per book
Where to find it: Available at your local library or bookstore! (Try searching on Worldcat or Bookshop.org.)
What is it, in summary?: Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children is a boarding school for teens exiled from fantasy worlds. AKA… where do you go after Narnia throws you out?
Onishi Sumi's parents wanted her to be quiet, still, and focused, the perfect daughter of a powerful corporate empire. Unfortunately for them, she escaped into Confection, a nonsensical land of sweets where she was finally able to be the exuberant, always-moving girl she'd always wanted to be. Despite the prophecy that she'd overthrow the tyrannous Queen of Cakes, she was ultimately exiled back to the world she came from.
Book 1/book 3 spoilers:
As a child, Kade West was snatched by fairies to be their champion against the Goblin Empire. When he killed the Goblin King, the king named him Goblin Prince-in-Waiting with his dying breath, prompting Kade to start figuring out his gender. But when Kade changed his pronouns, the fairies claimed he'd sold them a false bill of goods and threw him back to the world he came from. He made the best of a bad situation, and now he's a tailor and researcher who helps run his great aunt Eleanor's boarding school. He doesn't want to ever go back to Prism, the fairyland he was exiled from.
Book 9 spoilers:
Nancy Whitman belongs in the Halls of the Dead, where she serves the Lord and Lady of the Dead as a living statue. Silence and stillness come naturally to her, and she despises the hot, fast world of the living. She doesn't want to be attending Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, she doesn’t want to have a crush on Kade, and she especially doesn't want to be suspected of a string of murders among the student body. Unfortunately for her, that's what's happening.
Over a hundred years ago, Eleanor West was known as little Ely West, the Wayward Girl, and in her heart, that's who she still is. Blessed with one of the rare stable doors between worlds, Eleanor traveled into a nonsensical world countless times as a child, until her mind became too mature for her to survive there. Now, she's the eccentric headmistress of Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children, having dedicated her life to caring for the children of the doors. She dreams of the day when her mind will finally deteriorate from age enough that she'll be able to live in nonsense again.
What do you love about it?: Sumi! I’m here for Sumi. I love that she's weird and scattered and competent and creepy. I love that she always needs something to do with her hands. I love that she’s blink-and-you-miss-it implied to be plural in book 5, I love that she has undiagnosed ADHD (not canon, but it’s really obvious if you stop and think about it), I love that she’s queer and Japanese American.
And man, Kade’s awesome too. I mean, he’s a goblin prince-in-waiting who lives in an attic full of fabric and books. His hobby is mapping worlds. That’s super cool.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Genfic, pre-canon, post-canon, missing scenes, Kade’s research
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:
For Nancy and Eleanor, read Every Heart a Doorway (book 1). (Nancy also appears in chapters 5 and 6 of Beneath the Sugar Sky, which is book 3. Eleanor appears in every book except for books 2 and 6, but most of her page time is in book 1.)
For Sumi and Kade, you have a lot of options!
Content warnings: Murder (mostly in books 1, 2, 3, 5, & 7), some gore, creepiness, references to bigotry, discussion of war (mostly in books 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, & 9), restrictive eating (book 1 only, but mentioned in book 3 and possibly others), kid who used to have cancer (he got magically healed, he's fine, there are some brief concerns about it coming back but it doesn't) (book 3 only, but mentioned in books 1, 3, 5, & 9), animated skeletons (on-page only in book 3, but mentioned as romantic partners in books 1, 3, 5, & 9), discussion of eating sentient beings, on-page institutional abuse of children/teens (book 7 only), sexual grooming of a child (on-page in book 8, discussed in book 9)