Victoria hates nonsense. There is no need for it when your life is perfect. The only smudge on her pristine life is her best friend Lawrence. He is a disaster--lazy and dreamy, shirt always untucked, obsessed with his silly piano. Victoria often wonders why she ever bothered being his friend. (Lawrence does, too.)

But then Lawrence goes missing. And he's not the only one. Victoria soon discovers that The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls is not what it appears to be. Kids go in but come out...different. Or they don't come out at all.

If anyone can sort this out, it's Victoria--even if it means getting a little messy.

This book has been graded for interest at 10+ years.

There are 368 pages in this book. This book was published 2013 by Simon & Schuster .

Claire Legrand's first novel was The Cavendish Home for Boys and Girls, a New York Public Library Best Book for Children in 2012. She is also the author of The Year of Shadows and Winterspell, a young adult retelling of The Nutcracker. She is one of the four authors behind The Cabinet of Curiosities anthology, a Junior Library Guild selection and a NYPL Best Book for Children in 2014.