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Top Ten Children’s and Young Adult Books About Trees, Woods, or Forests by Holly Mueller
I participated this year for the first time in the March Slice of Life Story Challenge, started by Two Writing Teachers. It was an amazing experience. I personalized the challenge by writing about childhood memories because my fifth graders were writing memoirs. In one memory, I wrote about my love of trees and playing in the woods when I was young. I connected the memory to several books that featured trees, woods, or forests. An idea for a Nerdy Book Club post was born! Trees often symbolize life, knowledge, or spirituality. Forests in fairy tales are usually dark, magical, mysterious places where journeys and quests take place in order to show transformations. Trees in stories (and real life) are rarely just trees. They take on meanings of all kinds. Here are my top ten children’s and young adult books with trees, woods, or forests as a central element.
Ida B…and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan
Home-schooled Ida B. talks to trees and the brook, and is full of spunk and goodness. When a tragic turn of events forces her to go to school instead of being home-schooled, she is devastated. The tragic turn is foretold by Ida B.’s beloved trees. What follows is a journey of the heart.
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
This is one of my favorite children’s books of all time. Jess and Leslie create Terabithia, a magical kingdom in the woods. Leslie teaches Jess about courage, friendship, and individuality. I think it has one of the best endings in children’s literature.
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Hazel and Jack were best friends until something mysterious lands in Jack’s eye, and he becomes cruel. Jack disappears into the woods, and Hazel follows, determined to find out what happened to her faithful friend. Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen,” Jack and Hazel’s journey into the forest is richly described. Trees show up in Ursu’s newest book, The Real Boy, also. Something tells me she must have a heart for trees and transformations.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
The Forbidden Forest was home throughout the Harry Potter series to many magical creatures and chilling scenes. One of the most haunting scenes was when Harry and Draco happen upon Voldemort feasting on the blood of a unicorn in order to regain his strength. The Harry Potter series is a classic quest story, complete with parts of his journey taking place in the forest. One of my favorite quotes from the series is by Dumbledore: “It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.”
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Lewis’s brilliantly told story has made its way into innumerable readers’ hearts. I’ve reread it several times, and I find something new each time. Who can forget the magic created when Lucy steps into the frozen forest for the first time?
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
This young adult novel is devastating and profound. A Yew tree awakens Conor O’Malley every night and tells stories of life’s difficulties. Conor is dealing with his mother’s cancer, bullying, and family complications. I finished with this book on a plane, and it’s tough to suppress full-fledged sobs while surrounded by other passengers.
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Need I say more? You’ve all read it or seen it in the theaters. I’m not sure I’ll ever get over the Rue scene in that deadly but transformative forest.
The Great Unexpected by Sharon Creech
Naomi and Lizzie are little orphan girls in Blackbird Tree trying to make sense of their circumstances when a mysterious boy, Finn, drops out of a tree one hot day. As the story unfolds, we discover surprising connections between the characters, like a “delicate cobweb,” linking them all. This is a quirky story filled with eccentric characters and magic.
The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. by Kate Messner
I love the metaphors of people and trees, Robert Frost’s “Birches” as a touchstone poem throughout the story, and the complex layers of character and plot in this story. If you’re a teacher, you will think twice about the pressures you put on some kids to meet your stringent expectations when they may be going through many trials and tribulations.
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Grace has always been fascinated by the wolves in the woods out her back door; one in particular. When “her wolf” shows up as an actual boy, Sam, they have an immediate heated relationship. Stiefvater is such a smart and excellent writer.
It is difficult to stop there. I can think of at least ten more, and more if we opened it up to adult fiction. What books about trees, forests, or woods have you loved? And before you go, what kind of tree would you be?
Holly Mueller is a gifted intervention specialist who teaches accelerated 5th/6th grade ELA at Columbia Intermediate School in Kings Local School District in Ohio. She loves to read, teach, write, learn, hang out with friends and family, walk her dog, and travel. Books cover every corner in her house and classroom. She blogs at Reading, Teaching, Learning and tweets as @muellerholly. She is a contributor to Choice Literacy.
Nerdy Book Club 
Nightingale’s Nest was lovely too. Great list!
I haven’t read that book yet, but it is sitting on my end table waiting for me!!
Ahh I remember picking up Bridge to Terabithia at a local library after a particularly trying swimming lesson. I was quite young, and the ending shocked me. Now that I look back, I was quite a bubblewrapped child.
The ending was so beautiful and poignant, I will always remember it. One of the first tragedies I read.
I love that expression: “I was quite a bubblewrapped child.” The ending is just perfect, isn’t it?!
“The Naming of Tishkin Silk” is a beautiful, poignant story by Glenda Millard. I think it has an apple tree featured in it.
Thank you for this suggestion. I don’t know that title.
Reblogged this on An Interesting Speck Of Dust and commented:
Nostalgia come at me.
Thank you for reblogging, Esmeralda!
You’ve shared some of my favorite books and some new ones to discover. LOVE this post! Thanks Holly!
Thank you, Michelle!
I wonder if you’d enjoy A BIRD ON WATER STREET – about growing up in a place where the trees have all been cut down to fuel the local copper mine, and what it means to 13-year-old Jack when the mine closes and nature begins to creep back in. Winner of five literary awards – http://ABirdOnWaterStreet.com
Elizabeth, I just saw this title on someone’s blog post this week. I’ve put it in my TBR list – thank you! I’m clearly meant to read it. 🙂
I’m loving Nick Lake’s 2015 YA release called There Will Be Lies.
I will include that title in my TBR list!
I can’t pass up an opportunity to talk about Eli the Good by Silas House. Not only does it have a beautiful cover, but the most striking way I related to the book was in identifying with Eli when he goes to sit in nature, whether in his favorite shrubbery or under a tree. I loved trees as a child, the older, bigger and more spreading the better. I climbed a few in my day. When I met the author, it was the first thing I shared with him, a memory of my own childhood. Share that sensibility in this wonderful book. http://www.candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763652881&pix=n.
I almost added that title to the list! I love that book.
There are many, I agree, Holly. This is a wonderful list. A recent one I would ad is Nest, a debut novel by Esther Ehrlich. Thanks for a super post!
I haven’t read NEST yet – I have it, though, from the library. Can’t wait to get to it!
I was hoping to see A Monster Calls on this list. You didn’t disappoint. No surprise.
Though I probably would’ve put it first 😉
David Etkin http://Www.mretome.wordpress.com
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Ha – David – I know you would have! It’s such a great book.
Oh, Holly, I love a good tree in a story. There is one in my book in progress. I read Flipped this summer and a tree is significant to the girl MC. I love your post and all your book knowledge.
I’ve never read Flipped. It’s been on my TBR list forever. I need to get to it. I love that you have a tree in your WIP – another chicken, too, right?
Congratulations on this wonderful post filled with so many choices.
How wonderful that this post was born out of slicing!
This is a fantastic list of books, Holly! I’ve only read two of them (gasp), but it’s been awhile. I read Ida B. when I taught fifth grade and Bridge to Terabithia when I was in fifth grade.
Love your list of tree books – so many terrific titles! A few new ones to add to my BTR list. Another great tree book is Flipped. I also really enjoy The Night Gardener, and its rather sinister tree. Great storytelling! Thank you for the list!
Oooh – my Mock Newbery Club is going to be reading The Night Gardener. I’ll be looking for that tree!
Love this post topic Holly! I have never really thought about all of the books with trees and forests. You have some of my faves here!
Great post! I can’t wait to dive into these books when my children are older. Last week we read “The Ghost-Eye Tree.” Such a great read for my elementary students and just in time for Halloween!
Great write! I will have to check out these books.
Lots of great books mentioned here by everyone 🙂 I’ve read a handful and loved them and I’m going to add The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. WONderful book!
What a cool idea for a central connection between these books. Of course, now more fun comes as we all add our tree stories to your list! I can’t resist sharin my immediate two title thoughts: two books in which characters are tempted by wishes and inner desires, despite dire consequences. Juniper Berry and The Night Gardener. 🙂
I haven’t read either one – although, we chose The Night Gardener as a Mock Newbery Club common read recently!
And…beneath a tree is the perfect place to read. I vividly remember the long-ago summer day I sat in the shade of our backyard maple and read “To Kill a Mockingbird” from start to finish.
The classic and always timeless, “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein. This deserves a mention.
A classic — A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Still a favorite of mine, suitable for young adults, realistic glimpse into a young Brooklyn and the challenges some children faced and emerged from not-unscathed but strong, proud, decent young adults.
Ah, yes! Of course!
A forest plays a big role in Messenger, from Lois Lowry’s Giver series (it’s in Gathering Blue, too, but less prominent, I think). A threat to nearby trees (development) is an important part of the plot of Polly Horvath’s A Year in Coal Harbour, which is even better than the first book, Everything on a Waffle. A volunteer mesquite is a central metaphor in Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s gorgeous Under the Mesquite. Oh, and the woods as the origin of the wild children in the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. And if we’re talking Narnia, don’t forget the Wood between the Worlds!
Okay, I’ll stop, now.
P.S. I’m so glad Ida B is already here. (-:
I JUST finished Messenger, and you can imagine I was wanting to include it on this list!!!
I’ve just finished Colin Meloy’s Wildwood series. I’m impressed by the great tree and the blighted tree. Both grow in the Impassible Wilderness of Wildwood, and influence their followers for good or evil.
I would add Same Sun Here by Silas House. River’s Kentucky community is effected by stripmining. Thanks for the post and wonderful idea for a book display!
The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier is a fantastic book about a really strange and sinister tree.