Natalie Lloyd is a true storyteller. She brings together believable characters that readers care about, quirky settings that evoke a true sense of place, and a compelling storyline that keeps you reading. In the two books I've read by Lloyd, A Snicker of Magic and now The Key to Extraordinary, I've noted these as some of her "trademarks". I love Natalie Lloyd's way of weaving together stories of ordinary people with extraordinary experiences in extraordinary places. While The Key to Extraordinary's characters lead primarily "realistic fiction" lives, they do experience phenomena that are either magic, supernatural, or divine intervention--making this a fantasy or "magical realism". As a girl born in northeast Tennessee, and growing up in Bristol-- a town where the main street straddles the Virginia-Tennessee state line-- the setting as a mountain town in Tennessee definitely takes me home. For me, the most extraordinary thing about The Key to Extraordinary is its uplifting, inspirational tone, and the almost spiritual mood the book evokes in me as a reader. We live in a world where children hear and see more disturbing and difficult things than ever before-- and many of today's children's books attempt to address these things and help children to make sense of them. Lloyd's book is almost like a refuge from much of that; the characters deal with difficult issues, but the book seems a bit more innocent and even like a bit of a welcome refuge from the outside world. I definitely recommend it for middle grade readers!