The library at the edge of the Violet Forest has more rooms than anyone has ever counted. Most of them are full of books with words in them, which is what you would expect. But behind the reading room, through a door that is only there on Thursdays, there is one room where every book is empty.
Mira found it the week after her first spell. The shelves were packed with books of every colour, thick and thin, tall and tiny. She opened one. Blank. She opened another. Blank again. Every page was as white as new snow.
“Somebody forgot to finish these,” she said.
“Nobody forgot,” said the Keeper, who had followed her in on silent feet. “These are the unwritten books. Each one is waiting for its reader. When the right person opens it, it writes itself.”
Mira opened book after book. Nothing happened. Then, on the lowest shelf, she found a small blue book with a crooked spine. When she lifted the cover, something rattled inside, like seeds in a jar.
Letters spilled out across the page. An A, an M, an I, two Rs and a whole scatter of others, tumbling about as if they had lost their way.
“They’re all mixed up,” said Mira.
“Then put them in order,” said the Keeper. “A book can only tell you its story once you help it find its words.”
So Mira tried. She pushed the letters around with her finger. M, I, R, A. Her own name glowed, and stayed. Then STAR. Then DOOR, then MOTH, then LIBRARY, which took her a long time because of the second R. Every word she found settled onto the page and pulled more letters along behind it, until whole sentences began to write themselves.
It was the story of a girl who followed a moth into a library and found a star.
“Some books are about other people,” said the Keeper. “And some are about you. Those are the hardest ones to read.”
Mira read until the candles burned low. When she reached the last written line, the next page was still blank.
“It isn’t finished,” she said.
“Of course not,” said the Keeper. “You haven’t done it yet.”
The unwritten books are still there, behind the door that is only there on Thursdays. Yours may be among them, its letters rattling inside, waiting to be put in order. If you would like some practice first, Spell Words has a few loose letters to get you started.
