The Secrets of Underhill

Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she moves with her mother 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 offer: 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 from Mistwood must follow the trail where it leads them: underground, to a strange, enchanting world called Underhill. Only there, among the roots of the ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save her new home and the ironwood trees. This immersive fantasy adventure combines vivid world-building with timely themes of environmentalism, and young readers will be riveted until the final page. Story Locale:The fantastical world of Underhill, reminiscent of a Miyazaki world