Tiny Others (Agent C) 1st edition

Savannah's busy brain and fertile imagination become ignited on a family vacation to the mountains when a little shopkeeper in a country market gives her a package of very old paper. "Just use your gift well," he tells her.

Upon arrival at the family's summer cabin, Savannah discovers that she can sun-bleach the pages to reveal a hidden story of the "tiny others" who once made their home in the surrounding forest.

But who wrote this mysterious story, and when was it done?

Savanna's new neighbor, Chip Campbell, is a gifted young wood carver who thinks he knows the answers to those questions, but Savannah strongly disagrees with him.

As the two young people challenge each other to accept and use their respective talents, they begin to understand that everyone has responsibilities for finding and developing the things that they do best, and then "using these gifts well".

This is the first of the author's "Agent C" novels. Agent C is an embedded reading coach who makes cameo appearances in several of Lynda's stories for middle-grade readers. In Tiny Others, he takes the role of Mr. Pippin, the little shopkeeper who gives Savannah the ream of old paper. This gift causes the story to shift in a dynamic way.

When something causes such a dramatic change in the story plot, it is called a "catalyst". The "C" in Agent C's name stands for that word.