Eleven-year-old Johnny Saturday does his time at Brook Middle School waiting to indulge in his favorite activity, drawing. Lately hes been pondering a mysterious journal he found in his attic. Johnny made a sketch in the journal of a toy action figure named Max, and then experienced a bizarre dream about Max, a lady fairy named Kabladine, and a sinister villain named Black Piet who kidnapped his younger sister Sarah. Johnnys obsession with the journal begins to distort his reality as he notices that the mother of missing schoolmate Polly Pritchett reminds him of the fairy. A series of strange events at school and at the neighborhood lake convince Johnny and his friend Lola to once again sketch the action figure Max in the journal. This brings Max to life. Johnny and Lola agree to help Max rescue the now-captured fairy, Kabladine. Suddenly everything becomes dark, absolutely dark. With his courage and his magic journal, Johnny Saturday travels on a new adventure, returning to mythical Antarctica to find and rescue a princess and a kidnapped schoolmate.