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For fans of Crenshaw and When You Trap a Tiger comes the extraordinary tale of a headstrong girl and the magical dictionary she hopes will explain the complicated feelings she can't the right words for-or erase them altogether.

Zia remembers the exact moment the Shadoom first entered her life. Always a lover of words, this is one she hasn't been able to define. How do you describe a feeling? All she knows is that one day she was laughing with her best friends, and the next she was full of fear while a weight sat on her chest.

After her mother announces that her irritable yiayia is coming to stay with them, Zia's Shadoom seems here to stay. Until she discovers an old family heirloom: The C. Scuro Dictionary, 13th edition.

This is no ordinary dictionary. It's brimming with magic and comes with an eraser in the shape of the evil eye. When Zia starts erasing words that remind her of the Shadoom, she sees them disappear from the world around her one by one. It's finally giving her the confidence to befriend Alice, the new girl in school. But what starts as a relief quickly turns to chaos, as the words she erases turn out to be more vital than Zia knew.

In this thoughtful, funny, and at times heartbreaking middle grade debut, Bree Barton shows that-with the right kind of help-our darkest moments are what allow us to see the light.