Raised by an extremely overprotective mother, Summer longs for some freedom and adventure ... and when Baba Yaga's house on chicken feet comes walking down the back lane, she gets her chance. In the magical land of Orcus she sets off to seek her heart's desire, as well as to figure out why Baba Yaga decided to send her here at all. Along the way she meets a motley crew of companions, from a talking weasel to a puffed-up hoopoe bird with a valet flock, to a were-house ("I am a wolf by day and by night I turn into a rather pleasant cottage with white curtains").

I'm not sure why this wasn't published as a YA book under Kingfisher's YA author name; it's really more of a YA read than the other books she's written as Kingfisher. But it's still a charming read, and certainly for an older YA reader. The book is both itself a "portal" book (normal child finds magic portal to another world) and also a commentary on that genre, as the protagonist Summer has read Narnia, Alice and Wonderland, and similar "portal" books herself and so is able to evaluate her own situation with the knowledge of those and offer commentary on them.