Excerpt of The Orphanage of Miracles by Amy Neftzger

The day Nicholas arrived at the orphanage, the autumn came and never went. He could remember a time when there had been winters, springs and summers, just as he remembered a time when he had parents. But they were all gone now. And Nicholas was here, living in a rather tall stone building that was something of a cross between a cathedral and a small castle. He didn't know who had built it or why it was now an orphanage. He didn't even know what month it was, and no one seemed to care that the seasons never changed. Time was measured differently here.

Nicholas felt the crisp, morning air tingling on his face as he opened the heavy window shutters and filled his lungs. He could see fingers of sunlight reaching through the branches of the trees in the forest. It might have even been the enchanted forest, but one could never be sure. Everyone knew that the orphanage had an enchanted forest on one side, but no one seemed to know exactly on which side it was located. Every time someone identified where it was, it seemed as if that part of the forest moved somewhere else. Because of this, people who left the orphanage grounds usually never found the way back. Return visitors were scarce. Nicholas had never even seen a visitor at all. He saw only new children as they arrived, as if from nowhere. The residents of the orphanage lived almost completely in isolation from the rest of the world. That's because the orphanage was their whole world.