A tender and heartfelt new middle-grade fantasy from the author of The Forgotten Magic of Zoey Turner.
THE MYSTERIOUS MAGIC OF LIGHTHOUSE LANE
by Erin Stewart
Simon & Schuster, February 2026
(via Writers House)
People are seriously overrated. At least that’s how Lucy sees it. People come with feelings, and Lucy feels them all too strongly.
Lucy doesn’t like that she can feel the anger when her parents fight, or that a lonely octopus at the aquarium filled her with so much sadness that she sobbed in front of her whole sixth-grade class. So when her parents suggest that she spend the summer with her grandfather at his isolated cabin on Prince Edward Island, she jumps at the chance to get away from people, feelings—all of it.
Lucy arrives at her grandfather’s with the only thing she really needs: her camera. From behind the lens, she can watch the world without having to feel any of it. Then Lucy finds her grandmother’s old camera and darkroom. When she starts taking pictures of the people in town and developing photos, she sees things in a new light—a new, magical light. In the pictures, she can see everything: her subjects’ deepest fears and hidden desires.
As Lucy tries to get to the bottom of the photographic magic, she realizes she’s been given a special gift by her grandmother. Between the camera’s magic and her own ability to feel everything, maybe Lucy’s big emotions could actually do something good for once.
But figuring out the mystery means giving up on her summer of being alone. Is Lucy ready to open her heart to new friends—and new feelings—in order to help the people in her summertime home?