Skylight by Patchree Jones

For fans of Hayao Miyazaki, this middle-grade novel welcomes you to an immersive Thai fantasy where twelve-year-old best friends Sofia and Cara explore the boundaries of family, friendship, and learning to forge your own path. Sofia Luana longs to fit into her Colorado hometown. Constantly bullied by her classmates, who see her as an outsider, Sofia only has her best friend, Cara Felicity, for support. When Sofia's parents suddenly decide to move to California, her only hope is Cara, who says her family's moving there, too. On their plane ride halfway across the country, Sofia and Cara see a magical door in the clouds. The girls soon find themselves in a new land filled with a shapeshifting octopus, winged warriors, and the exiled sorceress Muet starting a war to take the throne. With her best friend, Sofia must learn to embrace her royal Mehk lineage, figure out who can be trusted, and find the courage to make her own decisions to end the war--or else Muet and her Night Army will extinguish Sofia's skylight forever.

Middle Grade • Children’s Fiction/Science Fiction and Fantasy • Diversity Representation • Diversity Representation/BIPOC/Own Voices

lamichi author

I liked the friendship dynamic between Sophie and her best friend Cara, there's some hinted romance between Sophie and her bodyguard Len, would have been nice to see greater focus on that. Worldbuilding was scant but the story was quite nice.