The Midnighters by Hana Tooke; Viking, 400 pages ($16.99) Ages 8 to 12.

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Hana Tooke, the Netherlands native whose marvelous debut novel "The Unadoptables" was set in Amsterdam, shifts to 1889 Prague for this entertaining gothic adventure.

"During the day, Prague was a phantasmagoria of color. The spires gleamed, the red-tiled rooftops battled the turquoise church domes for attention, stone gargoyles grinned downward and saintly statues gazed upward. At night, the lamplit city looked like it had been dipped in liquid gold."

Ema Vasková, the 12th child in a family of famous scientists, is keenly aware of ominous omens and shadows and afraid of everything but has a skill for reading faces. When her research proposal is deemed insufficiently brilliant for admission to Dagmara Bartonova's school, she is sent to stay with her Uncle Josef, a bicycle-maker, while her parents are off on a research expedition. (Her parents are speculating about carbonic gases and how Earth will become dangerously warm, "a subject considered utterly ridiculous by many of their peers.")

Ema is desperately lonely until she meets a girl she first notices dangling upside down from the rafters in the attic of an abandoned house across the way. Sylvie offers to help Ema learn to conquer her fears, leading her on a series of late-night adventures through the mysterious byways of Prague. When Sylvie disappears, Ema resolves to track her down and finds herself in a secret Midnight Circus, a place of wonders, intrigue and dangerous rivalries among the curators.

Tooke offers a vivid backdrop of late 19th century Prague, a cast of colorful characters, an intriguing mystery and an appealing protagonist in Ema.

Twelve.

Unlike say seven or thirteen, twelve doesn’t get much attention. But most people don’t know Ema Vašková — yet.

Ema is the twelfth child in her family. Born at midnight during the twelfth month, her life centers around the number. And so it’s not surprising that her family ships her off to her uncle’s house on her twelfth birthday or that she finds a friend who insists on midnight encounters.

And just as the description implies, The Midnighters is a bit quirky. But that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it’s just the sort of quirkiness that middle grades are drawn to.

Author Hana Tooke has a good pulse on her readers, balancing light and dark while maintaining an off-center tilt.

At 400 pages The Midnighters is probably a bit long for most 8-year-olds — it does take some time to get to the meat of the story — but should hold interest for older middle-readers, ages 9 and up.