After her father's death in a shipwreck, twelve-year-old Alice is dispatched to live with the uncle she has never met — the cold, powerful Geryon, master of an enormous estate with one forbidden room: his library. When a talking cat sneaks her inside, Alice finds that the books contain imprisoned creatures, and the only way out of a book is to defeat whatever lies within. She is a Reader, with the rare ability to enter and control the magic of the printed page.

Alice is courageous, stubborn, and principled — a girl who was raised to be self-reliant and refuses to accept injustice even when it would be safer to comply. Her loyalty to the magical creatures she encounters, including Ashes the sardonic cat and a fire sprite, drives the entire series. She is one of children's fantasy's finest heroines: tough without being invulnerable.

Across four books Alice graduates from terrified newcomer to leader of a rebellion against the Old Readers — the ruling class of wizards who have used their power to enslave magical creatures for generations. Each volume sends her deeper into more treacherous libraries while the political stakes escalate from her uncle's household to a war for the soul of the entire Reader society. The conclusion demands real sacrifice and tests whether freedom is worth the cost.