The Wishing World

Eleven-year-old Lorelei's parents and brother vanish on a camping trip while the family is watching a comet. A tentacled monster takes them. The relatives she goes to live with do not believe a word of her account, and she spends a year being the girl with the story.

Going back to her old house before it is sold, she finds a way through into Veloran — the Wishing World — where imagination becomes literal. It is populated by talking griffons, water princesses, cities built of sand, cockroaches the size of dogs, a pug that carries a knight, and the Spanglish-speaking Flimflams. There she learns what she is: a Doolivanti, someone who can write her wishes into existence.

The catch is that the monster holding her family has the same power. Getting them back means facing it directly, and her own ability is its own hazard — used carelessly, wish-writing could unmake the Wishing World itself.