You Are Now Old Enough to Hear This

You Are Now Old Enough to Hear This

There’s always more to the story. In the latest middle grade speculative novel from Spontaneous author Aaron Starmer, Roman follows the twisted threads of bizarre family legends and magical secrets to write his own chapter in his peculiar family narrative. "A triumph of imaginative storytelling…"— Booklist , starred review The Toe Beast looms large in the Barnes family lore—a tale concocted by twelve-year-old Roman’s grandpa to explain his missing toe. But Roman has never actually heard the full story, and after his grandpa dies suddenly, it seems like he never will. That is, until Roman is tasked with clearing out his grandpa’s house, and stumbles upon some strange things. An old mason jar full of formaldehyde, a mysterious handwritten book about a girl and a pack of dogs, a rusty metal bucket with peculiar abilities. And they all tie back to extraordinary secrets from the distant past. By unraveling even more unbelievable stories that have been hidden from him, Roman is forced to rethink how he fits into his family’s history. Now it’s up to him to see his own story through to the end. Because the Toe Beast was only the beginning . . . “A triumph of imaginative storytelling that belongs on the same shelf as other offbeat classics of children’s literature like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events and Catherynne M. Valente’s Fairyland series.”— Booklist , starred review "Roman’s curiosity about his family and his place within it propels him on an unsettlingly strange and seemingly disjointed journey that Starmer ( Night Swimming ) cleverly conjures into a cohesive, genuinely touching narrative."— Publishers Weekly , starred review "Starmer’s latest calls to mind Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me in the way the intricate plot similarly—and bafflingly—comes together with surprising twists… Intriguingly bizarre and wholly original."— Kirkus "Starmer ( Night Swimming ) combines magic, whimsy, and the unexpected in this exploration of one family’s history." —School Library Journal “A wildly original, deliciously strange tale of family secrets, magical mysteries, and one deeply creepy toe.”—Anne Ursu, author of Not Quite a Ghost “ You Are Now Old Enough to Hear This is a twisty, mesmerizing modern fairy tale that hooked me from the very beginning—I needed to know how all the threads fit together. This mysterious fable is filled with heart and will linger with readers long after they’ve read the last page.”—Doug Cornett, author of Finally, Something Mysterious “There is always a point, when I’m reading one of Aaron’s books, when I look up from a page I’ve just read, and I try to predict where the tale is going to wind up. (I have yet to succeed.) But I also know, every time, that there will be a later page where everything suddenly comes together in a way that is as satisfying (and often heart-shaking) as it is impossible to anticipate. This is one of those tales, but it’s more than just a gloriously twisty puzzle. It’s also a story of love and separation, of wishes and consequences that reverberate through generations, of the ways that families care for each other and the times when love and trust look different than we expect. It’s a strange and beautiful book that I read in one glorious sitting and then, if it hadn’t already been past my bedtime, would have flipped right back to the beginning to start again.”—Kate Milford, New York Times bestselling author of Greenglass House Aaron Starmer is the author of more than a dozen novels for young readers, including Night Swimming , A Million Views , Spontaneous , The Only Ones , and the Locker 37 series. He lives in Vermont with his wife and two children. One Quick Thing On the eve of his twelfth birthday, Roman Barnes made a wish. Alone in his room, tucked under his covers, he softly said the following words into the dark: “I wish I had someone to talk to, someone who understands me and what I’m going through, someone who will tell me everything is gonna be okay.” The next morning, he received a gift. “Oh, a magic eight ball,” he said as he sat cross-​legged on the sofa, opening a box covered in shiny silver paper. “You ask it ‘yes or no’ questions and it tells your fortune, right?” “Yep, just give it a shake and voilà, the answer will appear,” Roman’s dad said, and then he turned to Roman’s mom. “Where’d you find that?” She shrugged. “Wasn’t me.” “Must’ve been from his real parents,” Roman’s brother, Alex, said. “I guess now’s as good a time as ever to reveal the family secret. You’re adopted, Roman.” “Not true and definitely not funny, Alex,” Roman’s mom said. Roman was used to this sort of teasing from his brother, so he focused on the magic eight ball instead. He asked it, “Will you be nice to me?” Roman shook the ball and an answer emerged in the murky waters. It was a definitive: Yes. “Well, it is your birthday,” Alex said. “It has to be nice to you on your birthday.” Maybe that was the case, but it turned