Elise Primavera has, like Ivy, suffered her fair share of jinxes in life and has found it helpful, like Cat, to consult the I Ching before making any important decisions. She often feels, like Pru, that the safest place in this danger-filled world is under a quilt with a good book.

As Franny dreams of doing, she has made her mark in the world—but as a writer and illustrator of children's books and not as an explorer in the mold of Sir Ernest Shackleton. Among her many books are the national bestselling Auntie Claus and its sequel. This is her first novel, but it won't be her last, because like Hieronymus Gumm, she always likes to have the last word and is hard at work on another book about the Gumm Street Girls.