I loved this book! It hit so many middle grade tropes on the head and was a superb fantasy!
Joplin's rich and famous grandfather dies and she's allowed to take one thing from his manse to remember him by, although she never spent any time with him in the first place because her mom was oddly estranged from him. She chooses a tin filled with the pieces of a broken piece of china. It's a shattered antique Dutch platter, actually.
When she takes the pieces to an antiques dealer, he gets all funny on her, at first trying to convince her it's worthless, then offering her $500 for it.
But Joplin's radar is up, and she won't give it to him for any amount. Later, her babysitter takes it to someone else to get it repaired, and a girl in blonde pigtails painted in the scene with the ducks suddenly jumps out at Joplin.
Joplin makes a wish, that the girl was her friend, because she's terribly lonely looking, just like Joplin feels. Her grandfather's death has pushed his eccentricities into the spotlight and the forefront of her schoolmates' minds, again, and the paparazzi outside her house don't exactly help when it comes to making yourself invisible at school.
And then the girl in the platter appears in the courtyard of Joplin's apartment complex, sitting on a bench. It can't be, Joplin thinks, but she talks to the girl, named Alice, and the girl is, indeed, alive. They agree to meet on the bench after school.
Joplin tells Barrett, her one kinda-sorta friend from school, and together they find Alice still waiting on the bench in the afternoon.
Around this same time, Joplin notices the antiques dealer sneaking a peek inside the apartment complex. But so does her mother, on the surveillance cameras. And she wants to know, who is he, and why is he interested in them? Mom's quickly brought into the story (which I absolutely loved!!!) and brought up to speed.
I won't spoil what happens next, just know, this was a great read and one I intend on buying as a mentor text. Enjoy!
