Circa Now

Twelve-year-old Circa Monroe has a knack for restoring old photographs. It's a skill she learned from her dad, who loves old pictures and putting fun digital twists on them. His altered "Shopt" photos look so real that they could fool nearly anybody, and Circa treasures the fun stories he makes up to explain each creation. One day, her father receives a strange phone call requesting an urgent delivery, and he heads out into a storm. The unimaginable happens: a tornado, then a terrible accident, and Circa never sees her dad again. Just as Circa and her mom begin to pick up the pieces, a mysterious boy shows up on their doorstep, a boy called Miles who remembers nothing about his past. The only thing he has with him is the photograph that Circa's dad intended to deliver on the day he died. As Circa tries to help Miles recover his identity, she begins to notice something strange about the photos she and her father retouched-the digital flourishes added to the old photos seem to exist in real life. The mysteries of the Shopt photos and Miles's past are intertwined, and in order to solve both, Circa will have to figure out what's real and what's an illusion. With stunning prose, captivating photographs, and a hint of magic, Circa Now is a gripping story full of hope and heart. Praise for Circa Now "a moving exploration of grief and an honest depiction of friends and family facing the hardest of times. Examples of [Shopt photos] appear throughout the novel, with narrative captions that give the story a slight Miss Peregrine meets Harris Burdick atmosphere and add to its sense of mystery and possibility." Publishers Weekly "Just a tinge of fantasy pervades this captivating tale of grief and acceptance and of the power of imagination." Kirkus Reviews "Turner's story is an intricate weave of grief and healing, friendship, trauma, and wishful desire; gentle quirkiness and light humor soften the dire issues [Circa Now] has an intelligent, compassionate originality that gleams throughout." The Horn Book "the tenderness, imagination and hope underpinning the story, as well as the ultimate message of finding good in the bad, will have readers turning the pages to see how Circa might shape her present even if she can't change the past." BCCB