One of the hundred books a year I read:

High schooler Charlie Reade is athletic and popular, but carries baggage. His mother was killed in an accident, his father is a recovering alcoholic, and his own past is checkered from acting out in rage and grief.

In a chance encounter, he meets elderly Howard Bowditch who has fallen from a ladder and broken his leg. Charlie befriends the hospitalized Howard, takes care of the man’s elderly dog, Radar, and sets about repairing the man’s crumbling house. During his efforts, he grows increasingly curious about the strange noises he hears from a shed in the backyard.

The shed hides an entrance to another world of magic and mystery. In a nod to Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, the other world holds a magical carousel which allows a rider to grow younger. Charlie decides to take the aging Radar and give the dog more years of life.

During his adventures, Charlie discovers the connections our earth has with the other world through shared fairy tales—which may have more reality to them than the boy realized. He finds himself in the ultimate fairy tale as he must find a way to save a world in distress and return to his own life—assuming he makes it out alive.