Ghost in the Hatbox

Swordplay! Newfound friendships! School bullies! Budding love! Self-serving rivals! Scheming adults and soulless rebel plotters!

Welcome, to the world of Cadet Hatter Madigan, who has just entered Wonderland’s Millinery academy as one of the freshmen Caps’. Those born to be Royal Bodyguards are trained at one of the four academies (Heart, Clubs Diamond, Spade) linked to the royal houses. Cadets will study the mystic and martial arts, as well as the sometimes more difficult art of successfully dealing with others. Once Hatter begins his training he is thrown into a competitive world of both boys and girls vying to be the best. Arsenal cubes, blade chasers and Hat blocking 101 are all rites of passage the young milliners first take on together but must eventually perfect, separately.

As readers of The Looking Glass Wars already know, Hatter will grow up to one day serve as bodyguard to two queens and become Wonderland’s most famous traveler. But in Hatter Madigan: Ghost in the Hatbox, readers can live through the experiences that shaped this extraordinary Wonderlander. They will share young Hatter’s joy as he forges new friendships at the Millinery; suffer his frustrations as he strives to maintain these friendships; come, and witness young Hatter struggle with the first stirrings of love; watch him defend himself against rival cadets and contend with the expectations of teachers all too familiar with his infamous older brother and all while he tries to keep up with his studies.

Literary Sleuth and world creator Frank Beddor dared to expose the true story of Wonderland in theNew York Times bestselling young adult trilogy The Looking Glass Wars. To satisfy the awakened curiosity of his readers he continued to tell the parallel adventures of Royal Bodyguard Hatter Madigan’s search for the lost princess in the graphic novel series Hatter M. He lives in Los Angeles.


Adrienne Kress is a Toronto-born actor and author of the internationally published and award winning children’s novelsAlex and the Ironic Gentleman and Timothy and the Dragon’s Gate, as well as the young adult novels,The Friday Society and Outcast. In late 2015 her essay appeared in the non-fiction anthologyThe Secret Loves of Geek Girls and in the fall of 2016 she will be releasing the first book in an upcoming middle grade series,The Explorers Club.