The Secrets of Underhill by Kali Wallace
Summary: Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she and her mother move from town to town, caring for the ironwood groves the communities rely upon. When a dangerous blight takes hold of these magical trees, they must journey to the city of Mistwood—her mother’s hometown—for answers. Nick can’t wait to explore the prosperous city of Mistwood and all it has to the bustling markets and workshops, neighborhoods built under a roaring waterfall, and the vast ancestral grove of ironwood trees. But dark secrets simmer beneath the surface as people start to disappear, and tensions rise in the city. As the mystery grows, Nick and her new friends must follow the trail where it leads underground, to a strange, enchanting world called Underhill. Only then, among the roots of ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save her new home and the ironwood trees.
Another instant-classic middle grade fantasy from Kali Wallace. As in her previous middle grade novels Hunters of the Lost City and City of Islands, Wallace creates a world here that feels both timeless and utterly of its own moment, filled with achingly detailed characters confronting the challenges of their own time and yet providing insight on issues plaguing our modern world. In The Secrets of Underhill, the focus is on how people coexist with their environment, and what happens when greed outweighs human lives. As Nick helps her mother explore the cause of the mysterious blight affecting magical ironwood groves everywhere, she also confronts family secrets and her own fears. A bighearted story celebrating family ties, the power of nature, and the value of standing up for what’s right.
THE SECRETS OF UNDERHILL is out now.
Stories By Hand with Kathy MacMillan 