MAGNUS

The summer before she will start high school, Gretal moves with her mother and brother Bat from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Everett, Washington, where they live in the nearby town of Granite Falls. Gretal and Bat are aghast that their mother, an aerospace engineer, has to relocate the family for her job, especially because they leave behind the grave of their father, who died two years earlier in a boating accident on Lake Michigan.

After a week of unpacking, Gretal takes a bicycle ride to explore her new, heavily wooded neighborhood. An animal dashes across her path, causing her to crash her bike. A boy, Magnus, comes up to help and tells her that the animal was a bobcat.

Gretal’s mother really likes her new job, and Bat has quickly made some good friends. But Gretal has met only Magnus. A few weeks later Gretal is confronted by a huge catlike animal while she is walking alone on a remote hiking path. Suddenly, an enormous wolf rushes past and pounces on the weird cat. The wolf has the same piercing gray eyes Gretel has seen before—on Magnus.

Magnus confesses that he’s a werewolf. He also tells Gretal that the animal that stalked her was a werecat, which probably returned to its human form after being chased off by Magnus.

That night Gretal wakes up in her bed, thinking an animal may have gotten into the garbage canisters