The King in the Window — Adam Gopnik

OLIVER PARKER, an eleven-year-old American boy living in Paris, is lonelier than he has ever been. Intimidated by his French school and its prickly teachers, and feeling distant from his father -- a journalist who spends more and more time staring at his computer screen -- Oliver longs for friends, and maybe even a little adventure.

One freezing January night, his wishes are granted. After dinner, Oliver puts on a gold paper crown that came with his Epiphany cake. He looks at himself in the windows and instead of his own reflection, he sees an amazing vision -- a boy hovering in front of him, dressed in an ancient French doublet. Clues left behind by this ghostly boy lead Oliver to the Palace of Versailles, where he is swept into the French court of the Window Wraiths, spirits who inhabit glass and water, and who have claimed Oliver as their ultimate ruler: The King in the Window.

From the great hall of mirrors at Versailles to the stained-glass windows of the Sainte Chapelle, from the secret quarries hidden beneath Paris to a twilight battle on the Eiffel Tower, Adam Gopnik's novel is at once a magical adventure story, a touching human comedy, and a loving, sideways view of Paris and its turbulent history.