In the mid-1980s, when our daughters were in middle school, we came upon an enchanting computer game called "Below the Root." Little did we know at the time that it was based on a children's trilogy known collectively as The Green-Sky Trilogy. We loved the game, all four of us. Take two children and two adults who could be child-like, add a charming game, and there's a sale for someone!
Learning about the game's basis in a three-book series, I sought that series out and finally found all three in paperback. We all read it, and I still have it, as I treasure the books I enjoy most. I read to my grandson from this series when he was a wee one, as a way of getting him used to the rhythm of stories and as a way of letting him bond with me through my voice. He became an avid reader.
The story involves the Kindar, an ethereal people who live in the high boughs of a forest, a place called Green-Sky. The key to the story is their relationship to the Erdlings, underground dwellers who live below the root of a holy tree that has great spiritual significance to the Kindar. It was the Kindar who imprisoned the Erdlings. Difficulties begin when the Kindar discover that their Holy Root is withering, threatening their existence. Then an Erdling child who flees when she is told her pet rabbit must be sacrificed to feed her people finds her way onto the surface, and then into Green-Sky. She develops a friendship with a Kindar child, and the Erdlings are released. However, there exists a high level of distrust between the Kindar and the Erdlings.
The author, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, was a schoolteacher. During her writing career, spanning from 1964 to 2011, she wrote some 46 books, three of which were Newbery Honors books, meaning that they fell short of being awarded a Newbery Medal, one of the most prestigious awards in children's literature, but qualified for the recognition of Newbery Honors.
The first pages of the first book in the series, Below the Root, introduce Raamo, the young male protagonist of the series. He has, to his great surprise, been appointed to the temple of the Ol-Zhaan, the spiritual leaders of Green-Sky. And thus, the reader is drawn into the story. Beyond that, I found it hard to put down, and read it through in a short time. It is time for me to re-read this trilogy. I just wish we still had the game and a computer that would play it.
Recommended for middle-school-age children, and for adults who haven't totally forgotten how good children's literature can be.
#Sunday Salon
About ten years ago, my brother-in-law recommended Black-and-Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, and so I felt like I had to read it. It was fantastic. And even though I've read all the Newbery books, I have not read all the Newbery Honor books. I'm adding this series to my list to read before I die. Thank you, Karen!
ReplyDeleteDeb, you are most welcome. Enjoy the Green-Sky Trilogy. I'm not even sure I've read all the Newbery Medal winners, never mind all the Honors recipients, and I was a librarian. I was not a children's librarian, however, but I had children. Neither have I read any other books by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. That lack must be remedied!
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