From the bestselling author of The Unadoptables, comes a stunning new story about a missing friend, a gothic city, and a secret society full of wonder, invention and maybe a hint of magic . . . Find the courage to be extraordinary . . . Ema Vašková has always felt different. In a family of famous scientists, there's not much room for superstition or omens - but they seem to follow Ema wherever she goes. It doesn't help that she appears to predict events before they happen, and has a peculiar fear of shadows . . . When Ema is sent to stay with her eccentric uncle in Prague, she fears she'll lose the chance to ever fit in. But then she meets Silvie - a girl who finally sees Ema for the extraordinary person that she is. Soon the girls are meeting for secret midnight adventures, and facing Ema's fears together. But then disaster strikes. Silvie goes missing - and it's up to Ema to find her. Now she must gather the courage to hunt the city, find her friend, and uncover the secrets of the one clue Silvie left as to where she might be - inside the mysterious Midnight Guild . . . Praise for The Unadoptables: 'A high-speed, witty, absurd and joyful adventure' - Katherine Rundell, author of Rooftoppers and The Explorer 'A corker of a story' - Emma Carroll, author of Letters to the Lighthouse

In all the years that Elinora Gassbeek has been matron of the Little Tulip Orphanage, not once have the very strict Rules for Baby Abandonment been broken. Until the autumn of 1886, when five babies are left in outrageous circumstances:

One in a tin toolbox.
One in a coal bucket.
One in a picnic hamper.
One in a wheat sack.
And finally, one in a coffin-shaped basket.

Those babies were Lotta, Egg, Fenna, Sem and Milou.

And although Gassbeek might think they're 'unadoptable', they know their individuality is what makes them so special - and so determined to stay together.

Then a most sinister gentleman appears and threatens to tear them apart. The gang decide to make a daring escape, fleeing the frozen canals of Amsterdam for an adventure packed with puppets and pirate ships, clock-makers and cruel villains - and with only a scrap of a clue to guide them.

But is their real home - and their real family - already closer than they realise?

Ema Vašková is the twelfth child in her family, born on the twelfth day, of the twelfth month, at the very moment Prague's Astronomical Clock strikes twelve. Right from the start, it is clear that Ema is not an ordinary child. But when her behaviour gets altogether too strange, Ema's parents decide enough is enough, and she is sent to live with her eccentric bicycle-making Uncle Josef.

It is here that Ema meets her very first friend. Silvie is a girl who befriends colonies of bats, trawls treasures from the river, cartwheels down the Hunger Wall, and has but one firm rule: adventures are best served with a drizzle of moonlight and a sprinkling of stars, at midnight.

So when Silvie goes missing, Ema is determined to find her. Even if that means facing her fear of ghosts and infiltrating an alluringly peculiar secret society known as The Midnight Guild . . .