From National Book Award winner Pete Hautman comes a mysterious modern-day fairy tale about developing a moral compassâand the slippery nature of conscience.
For Annieâs tenth birthday, her papa gives her a pad of paper, some colored pencils, and the Klimas family secret. Itâs called the nuodeema burna, or eater of sins. Every time Annie misbehaves, she has to write down her transgression and stick the paper into a hidey-hole in the floor of their house. But Annieâs inheritance has a dark side: with each paper fed to the burna, she feels less guilty about the mean things she says and does. As a plague of rats threatens her small suburban town and the mystery of her birthright grows, Annieâcaught in a cycle of purging her misdeedsâbegins to stop growing. It is only when she travels to her familyâs home country of Litvania to learn more about the burna that Annie uncovers the magnitude of the truth. Gripping and emotionally complex, Pete Hautmanâs inventive yarn for middle-grade readers draws on magical realism to explore coming of age and the path to moral responsibility.