It Came from the Trees

April 15, 2024
A predator lurks in the woods in Russell’s spine-chilling debut. Eleven-year-old Jenna Thomas enjoys camping in the woods near her Massachusetts home, a pastime nurtured by her Pap, who was the first Black park ranger at Sturbridge Pines Reservation. But her love for the outdoors wavers when her Cottontail Scouts troop encounters a large, hairy bipedal creature that snatches her best friend Reese from their tent in the night. Jenna saw, smelled, and heard every horrifying detail, yet her mother doubts her claims and the police dismiss her testimony before abruptly accusing Jenna of lying. Jenna determines to save Reese, joining another troop, the Owlet Scouts, and resolving to plant survival packs for Reese along the trail on her next outing. Blog posts, newspaper articles, and scouting guides appear between chapters, cutting the tension and contextualizing the creepy happenings around the reservation. While descriptions of the creature are menacing, the anti-Black attitudes perpetuated by white authority figures are perhaps more so in this adroitly crafted horror novel whose heroine perseveres in the face of malice both supernatural and man-made. Jenna and Reese are Black. Ages 10–up. Agent: Paige Terlip, Andrea Brown Literary.

June 15, 2024
After Jenna's best friend goes missing during a camping trip in the Massachusetts woods, she sets out to find her--and in the process heals some wounds. Jenna loves nature--her mom and Pap (her park ranger grandfather) have made camping and hiking a part of their family culture. So she jumped at the opportunity to join the Cottontail Scouts and brought her best friend, Reese, along for the ride. But the group, with its expensive membership fees, isn't all it's cracked up to be, and the white scout leader makes the two Black girls feel unwelcome. When a mysterious humanoid beast attacks their tent in the middle of the night, hauling Reese away, no one believes Jenna's report, not even her mom, and Reese is labeled a runaway. But Jenna's determined to find her friend, and the best way to do that is to return to the woods. Jenna persuades her mom to let her join the free and more welcoming Owlet Scouts, who are camping 10 miles from the site of Reese's abduction. Jenna must battle her anxieties and find ways to trust again in order to face down literal and metaphorical monsters. The thrilling, fast-paced plot will keep the pages flying, and several juicy endings are left untied, leaving readers hoping there might be more tales to come. Enticing campfire thrills and chills. (Horror. 10-14)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

August 9, 2024
Grades 4-6 For Jenna, the outdoors is a second home, so it's with some resentment that she and her best friend, Reese, are made to feel like outsiders on the Cottontail Scouts' camping trip in Massachusetts' Sturbridge Pines Reservation--the very place where Jenna's grandfather worked as its first Black park ranger. On the final night of the trip, annoyance is replaced by terror when a hulking, hairy creature snatches Reese from her and Jenna's tent, leaving only screams and an unbelievable story in its wake. After the police stop searching for Reese, Jenna returns to the reservation as a newly minted Owlet Scout on a mission to bring her friend home. First-time author Russell cooks up a campfire-worthy tale that delivers chills (including a formidable cryptid) and is fortified by a strong emotional core. Jenna experiences heartbreak, guilt, and racial microagressions, but she shows tremendous courage and determination in the face of it all. Russell adds texture to the narrative by interspersing newspaper articles, blog posts, and scout-handbook excerpts. A spirited story that positively centers Black and brown characters in the horror genre and in the outdoors.

COPYRIGHT(2024) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.