Ever since she first learned to hold a crayon, twelve-year-old Zora Webb has been unstoppable. She draws rainbows and balloons and trees and skyscrapers. She draws hamsters wearing pajamas, and hundreds of horses (at the request of her horse-obsessed little sister Frankie). Zora’s drawings fill sketchbooks and cover the walls of the happy home she shares with Frankie and their mom in Duluth, Minnesota. Her drive to create—which Zora and Mom call “Voom”—is powerful and constant.

But when Zora’s mom is diagnosed with leukemia, everything changes. After months of illness, her mom dies, and with her goes Zora’s drive to create. Desperate to escape the pain, Zora scribbles out her artwork and vows to never draw again. Her dark, furious scribbles lift off the page and yank Zora and Frankie into Pencilvania, a magical world that’s home to everything Zora has ever drawn. And one drawing—a scribbled-out horse named Viscardi—is determined to finish the destruction that Zora started.

Viscardi kidnaps Frankie, promising to scribble her and all of Pencilvania out at sunrise. Zora sets out to rescue her sister, venturing deep into Pencilvania—a place crawling with memories, dangers, and new friends. If she is to save Frankie, Zora will have to face the darkness that both surrounds her and is inside of her.

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“A vibrant celebration of art’s power to console and heal.” –Kirkus

Named one of the best books of 2021 by the New York Public Library
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Sourcebooks, October 2021
Ages 8 and up
Illustrations by Sofia Moore