Toaster Pond

What if your small town was more than it seemed? What if something you thought was a gift was starting to look like a curse? Doug Manion, newly thirteen, has been hearing voices: at best, they help him catch unsuspecting opponents in the increasingly competitive games of hide-and-seek he and his friends play; at their worstâ€"and strangestâ€"they let him overhear his parents' plans to send him to boarding school. These plans have to wait, however, when Doug and two friends take a fateful dip in Toaster Pond and end up in a parallel world. Surfacing in a town called Sangerfield, they are no longer just boys playing games; they are the best hope of Lord Eisenhut to find the Gem of Gicalma, a powerful stone that will protect Sanger Castle from the attacks of Ludicrous Zwevil. Doug and his friends must win this game of hide-and-seekâ€"for this time they are playing for their lives.