A young girl discovers an infinite variety of worlds in this standalone tale in the Hugo and Nebula Award-wining Wayward Children series from Seanan McGuire, Lost in the Moment and Found.

Welcome to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go.

If you ever lost a sock, you’ll find it here.
If you ever wondered about favorite toy from childhood... it’s probably sitting on a shelf in the back.
And the headphones that you swore that this time you’d keep safe? You guessed it….

Antoinette has lost her father. Metaphorically. He’s not in the shop, and she’ll never see him again. But when Antsy finds herself lost (literally, this time), she finds that however many doors open for her, leaving the Shop for good might not be as simple as it sounds.

And stepping through those doors exacts a price.

Lost in the Moment and Found tells us that childhood and innocence, once lost, can never be found.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Published
January 10, 2023
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Wayward Children

The series

Full series details →

In the Wayward Children series, Seanan McGuire invites readers into a world where children discover doors to alternate realities—worlds that feel more like home than the one they were born into. But when they return to the mundane world, they find themselves lost, unable to reconnect with a reality that feels increasingly foreign. It’s a story about being somewhere you don’t belong and longing for a place that can never be returned to.

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The series opens with Every Heart a Doorway, where readers are introduced to Eleanor West’s School for Wayward Children. Here, the misfits are offered a safe haven to process their experiences, from worlds of beauty and magic to those of science, logic, and madness. But beyond the walls of the school, these kids must contend with the realities of their strange and often dangerous adventures, and the haunting question of whether they'll ever truly fit back into a world that no longer feels like their own.

Each installment delves into a different child’s journey, unraveling unique stories of self-discovery, resilience, and loss. In Down Among the Sticks and Bones, the focus shifts to twins Jack and Jill, who must come to terms with their dark and twisted past. Meanwhile, Beneath the Sugar Sky and In an Absent Dream explore realms where logic clashes with emotion, and reality twists under the weight of imagination. With each tale, McGuire masterfully layers her characters' development against the backdrop of the strange worlds they inhabit—worlds that are as wondrous as they are perilous.

The Wayward Children series isn’t just a portal fantasy. It’s a poignant exploration of belonging, identity, and the bittersweet nature of homecoming. It’s about the worlds we create within ourselves when we’re forced to navigate between spaces that feel impossible to reconcile.

For fans of immersive, character-driven fantasy, this series delivers a rare emotional depth and a haunting atmosphere. It doesn’t offer neat answers, but it poses questions that linger long after the pages are turned—about what it means to be home, and whether we can ever really go back.

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