I tried not to think about what would happen in a few years’ time, when I would lose my gift. Nobody could predict when it would happen—I was half fictional, after all. It was possible I’d be able to go on jumping for longer than other people—perhaps even forever. But it was more likely that one day I would have to decide where I wanted to spend my life. With Will in the fabulous world of words, in which everything and everyone was controlled by invisible authors. Or without him in the real world, whose stories were even more exciting because they were written by life.
* * *
There were cliffs in Neverland, too. They weren’t as high as Shakespeare’s Seat, and the wind on the clifftop was only a gentle breeze. The sky was always too blue and always too sunny. But Will and I still climbed up there now and again. We closed our eyes, and as our lips touched we remembered what it had been like the night the princess had stolen the scraps of her fairy tale.
In the days when our love had still been wholly real.
And then, sometimes, the gentle breeze became a storm after all and carried us up, up, up, into the magic of the words.
The princess stood on the highest battlement of the highest tower and looked out at the sea of flames.
Stories were strange things.
One minute they were over: the next minute you simply turned back to the beginning and everything began again.
One minute the princess had lost everything, the next she thought she could already spy a new knight in the distance, coming to rescue her.
She smiled as she waited for him.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mechthild Gläser is an award-winning author in her native Germany. The Book Jumper is her first book to be translated into English. You can sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
PROLOGUE
1 ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS AN ISLAND
2 THE SECRET LIBRARY
3 CHEWING GUM FOR OLIVER TWIST
4 BETWEEN THE LINES
5 IN SEARCH OF THE WHITE RABBIT
6 THE GREAT FIRE
7 DISCOVERIES
8 A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER
9 THE CHASE
10 VISITORS TO LENNOX HOUSE
12 A MIDWINTER NIGHT’S DREAM
13 SHAKESPEARE’S SEAT
14 IDEAS
15 THE FORGOTTEN GIRL
16 THE PRINCESS
17 THE MONSTER
18 THE KNIGHT
19 THE END
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
COPYRIGHT
Text copyright © 2015 by Mechthild Gläser
Translation copyright © 2017 by Romy Fursland
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All rights reserved.
Names: Gläser, Mechthild, author. | Fursland, Romy, translator.
Title: The book jumper / Mechthild Gläser; [translated by Romy Fursland]
Other titles: Die Buchspringer. English
Description: First American edition. | New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2017. | Summary: “A teen girl discovers she is a book jumper—she can leap directly into books, meet the characters, and experience the world of the book”— Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016007363 (print) | LCCN 2016033440 (ebook) | ISBN 9781250086662 (hardback) | ISBN 9781250086679 (Ebook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Books and reading—Fiction. | Characters in Literature—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.G585 Bo 2017 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.G585 (ebook) | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016007363
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eISBN 9781250086679
Originally published in Germany in 2015 by Loerve Verlag GMbH under the title Die Buchspringer.
First American hardcover edition 2017
eBook edition January 2017