The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, by Jennifer Trafton, art by Brett Helquist, Dial Books, ages 9-11, 336 pages. Feisty 10-year-old Persimmony Smudge dreams of being heroic but to everyone else on the Island at the Center of Everything, she's just a poor, forgettable girl. Then one dark and stormy night, Persimmony strays from a path in the Willow Woods to chase her hat and is pulled into a fantastical adventure to save her island home and find her missing father. That night, after running after the hat, Persimmony discovers she's lost her way and starts to dance off her frustration in the pouring rain. While wildly twirling about, she falls into a willow tree, the home of poison-tongued tortoise, and is chased by the tortoise into the hollow of a log. While inside, Persimmony overhears two Leafeaters plotting to get back at the king for cutting down their woods. They will dig out the king's gold from under the mountain and hold it hostage until the king does what they say. The next day, after crawling out of the log, Persimmony meets a forlorn potato-faced man named Worvil and runs into an elderly potter friend Theodore, and together they agree that the king must be warned. But what's all this talk at the castle of a giant belt buckle being uncovered under the castle?
