The Bright Child by Tommy Wallach

The Bright Child is a fantasy novel in the mold of Philip Pullman or C.S. Lewis. Parker Sante, a chubby eighth-grader whose best friend is the view out his attic window, has recently been kicked out of his high school for almost killing another boy. His mother doesn't know what to do with him, and is ecstatic when he is accepted to a new private school that promises to be one of the best in the country, Bright Child Academy. The family moves to Yreka, a small suburban town in the Pacific Northwest, so Parker can attend. Finally, he'll be able to start fresh. Unfortunately, everything is not what it seems at Parker's new school. There is the bully Chuck Armstrong, who terrorizes Parker at every turn. Then there is the mysterious principal, Mr. Stennis, and the secret 'advanced' class he teaches after school. Not to mention Mr. Bobcat, the old man across the street who's always calling out to Parker as if they know each other. And strangest of all, there is the strange boy that Parker meets one day after school, who claims to be his shadow. The Bright Child follows Parker and a huge cast of friends and enemies as he embarks on an adventure that will take him from this world to those beyond. Learn about the powers of the shadowmancers, the mysterious disapperance of Parker's father, and why Bright Child Academy might just be the most sinister school in the history of the world. Discover how Parker Sante, an average overweight kid flunking history, might just become the savior of not only humanity, but a mysterious hidden race that moves among us: the shadows.