Asterwood
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Family secrets, friendship, and magic burst from the seams of this thrilling fantasy adventure that follows a ten-year-old girl as she discovers a new world behind her home in desperate need of her help and within it, her own troubling family legacy.
Madelyn has always been satisfied with her life of cozy meals, great books, and adventures with her father in the woods behind their farmhouse.
But when a mysterious child appears and invites her down a forbidden trail and into a new world, Madelyn realizes that there’s far more to life than she ever allowed herself to realize.
This new world, Asterwood, is wider, wilder, and more magical than she could ever imagine. And somehow, it’s people know who she is—and desperately need her help.
Accompanied by new friends—one who can speak the language of the trees and one with a mind as sharp as her daggers—and her calico cat, Dots, Madelyn embarks on an epic quest across a strange and sprawling forest world whose secrets just might help her save her own.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A tween becomes embroiled in an epic struggle to save a magical forest in Stolos's optimistic, ecologically minded debut. Ten-year-old Madelyn Delios, who lives with her father in the New Hampshire countryside, yearns for acceptance, having never felt like she fits in with her classmates. Then Madelyn meets violet-eyed Calle, also 10, who invites her to a place called Asterwood, which can be found along a forbidden forest route that Madelyn's father dubbed "the Path of No Return." Disobeying her father's rule that she avoid the trail, Madelyn follows the path, at the end of which she discovers a hidden encampment of violet-eyed children like Calle called the New Hopefuls, who are dedicated to healing the magical Violet Aspen trees of Asterwood, which have been severed from their source, the Heart Tree. Much to Madelyn's bafflement, the New Hopefuls inform her that she is the daughter of Asterwood's greatest protectors, who went missing along with Madelyn when she was a baby. The youth is quickly swept up in a bid to protect Asterwood from ominous Tree Eaters intent on destroying the forest and claiming its magic for themselves. Lush prose parallels the protagonist's desire to belong with her new friends' goal of preserving their environment, while a meandering narrative focused on family, home, and natural harmony proves heartening. Madelyn and Calle read as white. Ages 8–12.
