Splendors and Glooms

Newbery Medal winner Laura Amy Schlitz's gothic novel in the grand Victorian tradition, SPLENDORS AND GLOOMS, is set in London and centered around the disappearance of a twelve year-old girl, who goes missing. Two children realize it is their guardian, a Venetian-born puppeteer and magician, who has kidnapped her and used his dark powers to imprison her mind and body in the form of a puppet and strive to return her to human form.