Un Lun Dun by China Mieville

This book is like a bizarre cross between Alice In Wonderland and Pink Floyd's movie The Wall.  The main character, Deeba, is a 12 year old girl whose best friend, Zenna, has been having strange experiences in her life lately including animals staring at her and her face appearing in the clouds.  Together, the girls wind up in UnLondon,  an alter city to London - (I see a similarity to Mieville's book The City & The City) - which is a place where trash, lost laundry and other unwanted things from London wind up.  The inhabitants of UnLondon are strange and unusual and include a man with a pincushion head, a diving suit full of water and fish named Skool, and ninja trashcans called binjas. Together, Deeba and Zenna learn that Zenna is the shwazzy- the chosen one who is supposed to save UnLondon from the sentinent, evil Smog.  After Zenna is injured by the smog, and the girls return to London, Zenna has no memory of UnLondon at all, leaving Deeba to return and take her job over and save UnLondon. 
This is a fun and creative book and I enjoyed it very much.