Rachel reads a lot of books. They serve as a security blanket against her terrifying home life. As with all avid readers, for Rachel they’re also a source of happiness. The first one she mentions is the 1908 classic children’s novel The Wind in the Willows, which tells the adventures of Badger, Mole, and Ratty as they try to help Mr. Toad get out of trouble for stealing a motorcar. Author Kenneth Grahame told his young son these stories before publishing them; similarly, Rachel’s father read the book to her before she was able to read it herself. Thus, the book reflects her memories of her father and her desire to somehow return to a time when she was happy.

Each novel in Rachel’s reading list reflects a different aspect of Max and Rachel’s journey. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn relates the story of a boy who, accompanied by a man escaping slavery, runs away from an abusive father. In A Wrinkle in Time, two children travel across space and time in search of their father and to help stop an evil force from taking over everything. The Earthsea Trilogy imagines a world in which magical solutions to difficult problems are possible.