Kathryn Sullivan, Talking to Trees

Talking to Trees

Kathryn Sullivan

Amber Quill, January 2006, $13.50

ISBN: 1592797601

At the mall with her inane friends, teenager Jody Burns notices the oddly dressed girl with green hair pop out of the air. The strange girl comes over to Jody saying she is the one who her ailing Grandma, with assistance from the Keeper of the Gate, sent her to bring back to save their world. Jody's friends leave while she tries to expedite herself from this insane Twylgalitis. Her twin brother's friend Jeanne Tucker arrives followed by Billy. When Billy realizes Jody took his wristguard silver bracelet without his permission, he yells at her, but she being the taller twin is not afraid of him.

The three earthlings assume that Twyl as they call her really needs Billy not Jody. Twyl and reluctantly Jody enter the portal followed by Jeanne, but Billy is blocked. As Jody and Twyl end up in the grove TALKING TO THE TREES, Jeanne heals Grandma, and Billy is somewhere in the past. Soon the three humans and their new partner will meet up with wizards and other supernatural beings to confront an ancient evil, one that is trying to escape from its imprisonment to destroy the Free Land.

This is the sequel to the CRYSTAL THRONE, a terrific young adult fantasy, that besides making the Free Lands and its inhabitants seem real, brings an abject lesson of humility to Jody as she detests the way the female Trees treat her as being beneath them because of hair color, skin and clothing. The storyline is action-packed, focusing more on Jody's adventures in a world without a mall that she is totally unprepared for, and believes the wrong Burns is in the role of hero. Fans of all ages will enjoy her coming of age tale to stop an evil old one from turning the Free Lands into a dead zone.