Twelve-year-old Alexandra stumbles upon the key to a hidden worldbut is it a gift, or a nightmare?Twelve-year-old Alexandra Hobson feels ignored and unloved in her family of annoying, self-absorbed overachievers. One day in the woods she hears a shot, and is horrified to see a large, beautiful bird fall to the ground. She takes the injured egret home, hiding it in the basement behind the furnace, where it joins the other wounded creatures Xandra cares for unbeknownst to her parents.The next morning, the bird is gone. But it has left something behind: a quivering white feather. Convinced the feather is enchanted, Xandra brings it to school, where a weird, uncool seventh-grader named Belinda tells her it's a key to an unseen world. As Xandra enters a strange and scary realm, she confronts a magic that's all too real. Can she figure out how to stop the key from becoming a curse?This ebook features an extended biography of Zilpha Keatley Snyder.