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Step into a world filled with art…and danger! Lovers of Vincent van Gogh, Lillias Trotter (a little-known artist of the Victorian era), and Georgia O’Keefe, be prepared to meet characters with the same names and the same love of art in Carolyn Leiloglou’s new book Beneath the Swirling Sky. 

When Vincent’s parents drop him and his adopted sister Lili off at Great-Uncle Leo’s house—while they go on a cruise, of all things! —Vincent knows that his mom’s plan is “to reconnect him with art.” Vincent doesn’t believe that he’s a good enough artist; after all, he didn’t even place in the art fair, and parents’ opinions about your art abilities don’t count and aren’t always true. 

His cousin Georgia is there, too—a girl with coppery hair, a love for pottery, and a mysterious knowledge of every art museum in the world. Georgia has things she knows—things about art, restoration of art, and an interesting word: Traveling with a capital “T”.  

Huh? Vincent knew his family was a bit eccentric, but he didn’t know that they were this strange! 

But when Lili disappears inside a van Gogh painting, Vincent knows that things are even weirder than they seem. What’s he to do? Well, follow his cousin into the Starry Night painting and find out where in the world his baby sister has gone. 

And with that, Vincent is thrust back into art. He didn’t ask for it, he didn’t even want it, but now, he’s discovered that his whole family—part of a group of art-lovers called the Restorationists—is more deeply involved with famous pictures than he realized.  

Their mission is to restore the paintings ruined by the Distortionists (a group who skews the meanings of marvelous pictures into propaganda) and keep the true meaning of art alive.  

But can a boy who only wants to forget about paintings help save the art world? Can Vincent learn that art is one way that we show our standing as humans created in the image of God?  

If you want to find out, settle down in a cozy chair, open the book, and be swept into a place where the sky swirls like a fireworks display and art means so much more than one could ever imagine: Beneath the Swirling Sky, the first book in The Restorationists series by Carolyn Leiloglou.

(photo by Mary Kate)