Furthermore (Furthermore #1)

by Tahereh Mafi (Author)

Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade
Series: Furthermore

This captivating and colorful adventure that reads like a modern day fairy tale, from the bestselling author of the Shatter Me series is the perfect gift!

"Brimming with color and magic." --New York Times Book Review

★ New York Times bestseller!

★ Featured on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," NPR, TIME, and Entertainment Weekly

★ A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

★ A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year

★ A Chicago Public Library Best Book of the Year

★ Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly Holiday Gift Guide selections

Inspired by her childhood love of books like A Secret Garden and The Chronicles of Narnia, bestselling author Tahereh Mafi crafts a spellbinding new world where color is currency, adventure is inevitable, and friendship is found in the most unexpected places.

There are only three things that matter to twelve-year-old Alice Alexis Queensmeadow: Mother, who wouldn't miss her; magic and color, which seem to elude her; and Father, who always loved her. The day Father disappears from Ferenwood he takes nothing but a ruler with him. But it's been almost three years since then, and Alice is determined to find him. She loves her father even more than she loves adventure, and she's about to embark on one to find the other.

But bringing Father home is no small matter. In order to find him she'll have to travel through the mythical, dangerous land of Furthermore, where down can be up, paper is alive, and left can be both right and very, very wrong. It will take all of Alice's wits (and every limb she's got) to find Father and return home to Ferenwood in one piece. On her quest to find Father, Alice must first find herself--and hold fast to the magic of love in the face of loss.

"Tahereh Mafi is a maestro of words, and Furthermore the most magical painting that ever existed, bursting with color and heart and humanity. I wanted to stay inside this masterpiece forever." - Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the Legend and The Young Elites series

"A place so full of enchanting beauty and topsy-turvy adventure, it even calls to mind Wonderland and Oz.... Friendship, family and self-acceptance. What makes this book truly sing is the lush world Mafi has created, brimming with color and magic." --New York Times Book Review

★ "Furthermore by Tahereh Mafi is a surprising, sensuous, delicious fantasy to devour." -Shelf Awareness, starred review

★ "A fast-paced, funny, and richly imaginative story that embraces and celebrates individuality." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ "Rich, luscious, clever prose." --Kirkus, starred review

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Publishers Weekly

Starred Review

Alice Alexis Queensmeadow does her best not to make waves, but she can't help it: she's almost entirely devoid of color in a world defined by it, and her "Surrender" is coming up, along with her 12th birthday. Everyone in Ferenwood "was born with a bit of magical talent," and the Surrender is the time to show them off, receiving an important task in return. When Oliver Newbanks, a boy who once teased her because of her appearance, approaches her for help completing his task, she reluctantly agrees, but only because he says he knows where her missing father is. Oliver and Alice set off for Furthermore, where nothing is as it seems. Mafi's (the Shatter Me trilogy) first middle grade novel is a lush, enchanting fantasy full of magic and mayhem, including paper foxes, people who live in eggshells, and magical maps. While Oliver and Alice start off at odds, their friendship, forged in adversity, is the best part of a fast-paced, funny, and richly imaginative story that embraces and celebrates individuality. Ages 9-12. Agent: Jodi Reamer, Writers House. (Aug.)

Copyright 2016 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-7--Twelve-year-old Alice of Ferenwood is swept up in an adventure when she sets out to find her three-years-lost father after her demonstration of magical talent fails to impress her village. In her world, color is intimately connected with magical ability. Everyone around her has brightly colored skin and hair. Alice, however, was born without any color--she has ultra-pale skin and light hair. She gains a companion on her journey to locate her father, a boy named Oliver who has the deceitful gift of persuasion and who provides a gateway into the neighboring fantasy land of Furthermore. In the vein of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, this title, with its colorful world-building, is sure to delight, the prose so saturated with the fantastic that the described reality becomes difficult to differentiate from metaphor. The tongue-in-cheek section headings are delightful (e.g., "Turn the page for more chapters" and "This might be my favorite part") but sporadic and mostly for fun, since the chapters are unnumbered and unnamed. Filled with danger and arbitrary rules, the realm of Furthermore is so set against interlopers like Alice and Oliver that their eventual success relies on happenstance. The fast-paced narrative, with a focus on action and adventure, comes to an unexpected halt when the story is expeditiously resolved. The book attempts to depict characters with a rich variety of hair and skin tones, but the plot features a protagonist who reflects the typical whiteness that besets most fantasy. VERDICT An unusually imaginative, entertaining fantasy with mostly minor deficiencies that prevent it from becoming pure magic.--Erin Reilly-Sanders, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Review quotes

"[Mafi's] prose is as fresh and fragrant as the flowers her characters eat, the descriptions so vibrant that at times one can practically smell the words on the page." —New York Times Book Review

★ "A fast-paced, funny, and richly imaginative story that embraces and celebrates individuality." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

★ "Rich, luscious, clever prose." —Kirkus, starred review
Tahereh Mafi
Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series. She can usually be found over-caffeinated and stuck in a book. You can find her online just about anywhere at @TaherehMafi or on her website, www.taherehbooks.com.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9781101994764
Lexile Measure
840
Guided Reading Level
-
Publisher
Dutton Books for Young Readers
Publication date
August 20, 2016
Series
Furthermore
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV037000 - Juvenile Fiction | Fantasy & Magic
JUV001000 - Juvenile Fiction | Action & Adventure
JUV013060 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Parents
Library of Congress categories
Adventure and adventurers
Magic
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship
Fantasy
Missing persons
JUVENILE FICTION / Family / General (see also
JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic

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