Emily Raabe grew up with her two sisters and two brothers in Vermont, building forts, reading books, and making up imaginary worlds. She received her undergraduate degree in Vermont and graduate degrees in England, California, and New York City, where she now lives with her husband and their hilarious French bulldog, Lola. She writes poetry for adults and novels for kids and teaches writing to art students. She loves books of all kinds, but especially ones involving magic, animals, mysteries, and the occasional French bulldog.
LEAVE IT BEHIND expresses the paradoxical wish of every poet, seeking to leave behind-in both senses of that phrase-the language trace of her mind and heart. And what a fine first book Emily Raabe has left behind: vivid and strange, haunted by dreamed animals, alive with the landscapes and losses of her Vermont childhood.
Twins Gus and Leo and their little sister, Ila, live a quiet life in Maine—until their mother falls ill, and it becomes clear her strength is fading because she is protecting them from a terrible evil.