The Shining World is the second book in a projected trilogy, and the sequel to The Nordlings, Kathleen McDonnell’s fantasy-adventure novel published in 1999. When the story opens, sixteen-year-old Peggy has gone up north to plant trees for the summer, hoping to make enough money to finally get out of her mother’s house and gain her independence. On a visit to a petroglyph (rock-carving) site, she finds herself abruptly transported to Notherland, an imaginary world she created when she was seven years old and that she had visited the previous year. There, she learns that Mi, a spirit-child who lives in the RoryBory or northern lights, has gone off by herself in search of a mythical “shining world.”

Fearing for her safety, Peggy and her Notherland companions- Gavi the philosopher-loon, Molly the pirate-doll, and a mysterious young man named Jackpine – set out in search of Mi. In the process, they must pass through a series of dream worlds, where they encounter, among others, the Pirate Queen Grania and the nineteenth-century Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin. After finding themselves in a late eighteenth-century cotton mill peopled with child laborers, the group makes its way to the workshop of the great poet and artist William Blake. During their sojourn with Blake, Peggy learns from him that she is a Mental Traveler, someone with the ability to imagine a “World in a Grain of Sand.” Only by valuing her gift will she be able to find Mi – and catch a glimpse of the Shining World herself.