For Ages
8 to 12

Maggie's Door is a part of the Nory Ryan collection.

We will dance on the cliffs of Brooklyn.

Maggie’s Door is the story of the journey from Ireland to America told by both Nory and her neighbor and friend Sean Red Mallon, two different stories with the same destination—the home of Nory’s sister Maggie, at 416 Smith Street, Brooklyn, America.

Patricia Reilly Giff calls upon her long research into Irish history and her great powers as a storyteller in this deeply involving, riveting stand-alone companion novel to Nory Ryan’s Song.

An Excerpt fromMaggie's Door

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nory

Nory hadn't gone far, just over the rise, when she heard it.

A voice?

"Ocras," it screamed. "Ocras."

Hunger.

Nory took another step and stopped. On one side of her were the dunes, on the other the great ocean. A strange place she was in, with wisps of fog drifting across the road. And again that sound.

The wind, she told herself, even though she knew it wasn't.

Granda had told her of selkies, half seal, half human. When they lived on land they wept bitter tears for the deep; when they returned to the sea they mourned for lost loves on the land.

Was that it? The cry of some poor selkie woman? Such an eerie sound.

The crying stopped and Nory began to walk again. One foot in front of the other. Away from home, away from that empty house with the door banging in the wind. The trip just beginning.

The sand drifted across the road, grains of it sticking to her bare feet. The crying reminded her of her little brother, Patch, and the last time she had seen him,…

Under the Cover