“The water felt so awful. And then I slipped. I slid towards the open sea and splashed on my side into the water.”
Author: Vuokko Hurme
Finnish original: Kaipaus
Publisher: S&S, 2018
Genre: children’s fiction, middle grade
Number of pages: 320 pp.
Reading material: Finnish original, English synopsis
Rights sold: Estonia, Rahva Raamat; Turkey, CAN
Lenna and her family have jumped from the upside down city of Kardum and the old life they knew into the sky below. Now she’s learning to live in Mabal, where gravity pulls her towards the ground, and the sky spreads out above the forests.
Lenna no longer has to be afraid of falling into the sky, but instead she has worry about what falls from the sky: trash, sand, and even houses and boulders. People build reinforced rooves, use umbrellas for protection, and give the children helmets to wear.
And there’s another danger. Mabal rests on a thin surface. Anyone who digs too deep below the surface will fall. No one knows where. There are more people in Mabal, and for the first time in their lives, Lenna and her little sister Rosa get to go to school. But Lenna’s best friend Jaan and his father have disappeared during their jump from Kardum. When Lenna finds out that there are people outside Mabal, too, she is filled with hope: could Jaan be out there among them?
Right-Side Up is the second novel in Vuokko Hurme’s children’s fantasy series Rotation. The first one, Upside Down, came out in 2017, and the third one, About-turn, will be published in 2019.
Also available:
Rotation #1: Upside Down (2017)
Rotation #3: About-Turn (2019)
The Hues #1: Ruby’s Secret (2020)
The Hues #2: The Many-Coloured Mansion (2021)
The Hues #3: The Shadow Guest (2022)
The Hues #4: Danger at the Colour Spa (2022)
About the author:
Vuokko Hurme