The Crystal Navigator is a middle grade fantasy that celebrates the power of imagination. Eleven year old Lucy Nightingale is a high frequency thinker. She can make things with her thoughts. She also loves school. Just about the worst thing that can happen to someone who has zillions of thoughts and who loves school happened to Lucy. When her mind went blank during her oral report, every drop of confidence in her original ideas walked out on her. She wished for something, anything that would bring it back. As if by magic, the next day a dazzling new teacher assigns another report, this time about five paintings. Lucy decides that the only way to get an A on the assignment is by talking to the artists in person. And, since she does not own a time machine, she summons a Wise One to help her with time travel. Wise Ones live on a faraway planet Wilwahren; they spend all their time listening for children who need help. That is all they do- they listen, but not with ears, they listen with their rainbow colored wavelengths. Lucy’s Wise One shows up in the form of a loveable, well-spoken, befuddled Corgi named Wilbur. He wears spectacles, reads brochures about liquid mirrors, has an endless number of fur pockets, merges essences with flowers, and invents gadgets. Guided by his magic Navigator, Wilbur and Lucy fly back to fifteenth-century Florence. The journey turns perilous when the Navigator contracts a virus and propels the two friends into the wrong time and place. However, Lucy works her way out of every situation, and, manages to inform five of the greatest paintings in art history and find her self-confidence. So, if you know someone who has always wanted to fly, someone who likes cutting edge magic gadgets, someone who would agree that the best way to escape from an ogress is to jump into the nearest painting; if you know someone who might like the idea of helping Leonardo da Vinci entertain an unruly teenager named Lisa, while he tries to paint her smiling, and finally, if you know someone like Lucy, who loves school, but who is afraid of oral reports because her confidence walked out on her, then you know someone who will love The Crystal Navigator. This book will appeal to anyone who loves art. Five famous painters and their art are seen through the eyes of a curious child and brought to life as they never have been. During a journey that is at once perilous and sad, exciting and funny, Lucy discovers the magic inside her.