<EM>The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children</EM><EM>. <BR><BR>If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for compan</EM><EM>y. <BR><BR>There are no strangers in the town of Near. <BR></EM><BR>These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. <BR><BR>But when an actual stranger--a boy who seems to fade like smoke--appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. <BR><BR>The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. <BR><BR>As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know-- about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy. <BR><BR>Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab's debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won't soon forget.