"Cole Randolph is just trying to have a fun time with his friends on Halloween. But their trip to a neighborhood haunted house turns out to be the start of a wild adventure when Cole watches his friends being whisked away through a mysterious passage. Cole dives in after them, only to emerge somewhere that's very clearly no longer Mesa, Arizona. he soonlearns he's come to a place called the Outskirts. Made up of five kingdoms, the Outskirts lies between wakefulness and dreaming, reality and imagination, life and death. The balance of power in the five kingdoms has been upset, and the magic there is becoming unstable. It's up to Cole and an unusual girl named Mira to set things right, rescue his friends, and hopefully find his way back home." --P. [4] of cover.