The Secrets of Underhill

by Kali Wallace Narrated by Gail Shalan

Overview

A young apprentice fights to save an ancient grove of magical trees in this riveting fantasy adventure, perfect for middle grade fans of Kelly Barnhill and Jessica Townsend.

Nick Sixsmith has spent her whole life on the road. The daughter of a traveling arborist, she moves from town to town with her mother, caring for the ironwood groves that people rely upon for survival. When a dangerous blight threatens these magical trees, the Sixsmiths must journey to the city of Mistwood for answers.

Nick can't wait to explore everything Mistwood has to offer: the bustling markets, the neighborhoods nestled behind 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 in the city reach a boiling point.

As the mystery grows, Nick and her new friends must follow the trail where it leads them-underground, to a strange and enchanting place called Underhill. Only there, among the roots of the ancestral grove, will Nick find a way to save the ironwood trees and the city she's come to love.

This immersive fantasy adventure combines vivid world-building with timely themes of environmentalism, and young listeners will be riveted until the final word.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

This socially conscious fantasy should appeal to fans of Kelly Barnhill’s The Girl Who Drank the Moon and Christina Soontornvat’s A Wish in the Dark.”—Alexandra Quay, School Library Journal

“A solid fantasy for nature lovers seeking gentle tales.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The Secrets of Underhill is a gorgeously rendered story of strange magic, environmentalism, and what it means to care for the ones we love and the world we live in. This is the exact kind of book that would have hooked me as a young, reluctant reader. I adored every page.”—Rebecca Mix, New York Times best-selling author of the Mossheart’s Promise duology

“A transportive ecological fantasy as lush in its message as it is in its prose.”—Esme Symes-Smith, USA Today best-selling author of the Sir Callie series

“A wonderful, heartfelt adventure, The Secrets of Underhill celebrates friendship, curiosity, and finding magic in the world around you.”—Marieke Nijkamp, New York Times best-selling author

“Readers will immediately want to take root in this wonderfully crafted environmental adventure filled with whimsy, heart, and hope.”—Justine Pucella Winans, award-winning author of the Stonewall Honor Book The Otherwoods

“A journey to the heart of a spellbinding new world. The Secrets of Underhill is a dazzling, deeply rooted story about how vital it is to feed curiosity, tend to our communities, and nourish a lifelong love and respect for all living things.”—Nina Varela, author of Juniper Harvey and the Vanishing Kingdom

“Enthralling. Kali Wallace has created a lush world full of natural magic and wonder, and I loved getting to join Nick, Oliver, and Lizard as they fight to protect that world.”—Lin Thompson, author of The House That Whispers

Kirkus Reviews

2024-11-23
A strong-hearted girl confronts powerful forces of greed and environmental abuse.

Eleven-year-old Nick Sixsmith and her mother, Theo, pause their itinerant lives as arborists to return to Mistwood, the home of the ancient, magical ironwood trees. Frustrated by their inability to determine the cause of a rapidly spreading blight, Theo returns to the home she abandoned before Nick’s birth to look for clues in the ancestral Heart Grove. Nick and her 12-year-old cousin, Oliver, along with their friend Lizard, become enmeshed in disturbing mysteries surrounding the Forestry Company’s new mill. Soon, they must fight to protect not only these magnificent trees, but also the whole city. Aided by the maligned inhabitants of Underhill, including Lizard, whose underground homes in the caves formed by the roots of the ironwood trees are threatened, the extended Sixsmith family goes to battle, hoping to prevent an environmental and social disaster brought about by unmitigated avarice. This warmhearted fantasy set in a rich world of magical botany and strong family bonds will appeal to newer fantasy fans; more experienced readers may find the character development predictable and yearn for greater emotional depth and complexity, livelier dialogue, and more showing rather than telling in the narration. Fortunately, Nick is a likable protagonist, the plot is well paced, and the timely messages come across without too much heavy-handedness. Most main characters are cued white; Oliver has light-brown skin.

A solid fantasy for nature lovers seeking gentle tales. (map)(Fantasy. 10-14)

Product Details

BN ID:	2940193958512
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	06/17/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	10 - 13 Years

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One
Unusual Plums

     There was something wrong with the plums of Springhaven.
     It was a warm summer day in the rolling hills around the Middle River. The sun had been shining when Nick and Theo had first arrived in town, but soft gray clouds had crept across the sky after noon. Now a gentle rain was falling, pattering on the plum trees with a musical sound. It was just enough to dampen the dusty roads and fill the orchards with a clinging mist.
     “Look at this,” said the mayor of Springhaven. She was a tall woman who spoke with a strident voice, like she was trying to be heard across a crowded room. She stood underneath an umbrella held by her assistant, who was left out in the rain to get wetter and wetter. “Look at this. It’s not supposed to be like this.”
     In her hand, the mayor held a single plum. At least, Nick thought it was a plum. It had the expected reddish-purple skin and it was about the right size, but it looked more like the closed bud of a flower than a stone fruit.
     “Oh, that is curious,” Theo said. She leaned closer for a better look. “May I?”
     “Take it,” said the mayor. She dropped the plum into Theo’s hand. “Take all of them. They’re useless now. The entire crop is ruined. Everybody is talking about how our fruit is strange and unnatural now. And it’s all because of that.”
     The mayor flung her hand out to point across the orchard.
     Standing above the plum trees on a small hill wrapped in fog was the silhouette of Springhaven’s ironwood grove. It was a small grove, from what Nick could see, with maybe two dozen trees and none of them very large. But there was no mistaking it. No other trees had that strange, twisted shape, as though they had been buffeted by hurricane winds from every direction since they were saplings.
     “How old is the grove?” Nick asked.
     The mayor glared at her. Nick realized she had interrupted the woman midsentence. She hadn’t been paying attention, because the mayor wasn’t saying anything important.
     “This is serious business,” the mayor said, her voice sharp with disapproval. “It is not a matter for children.”
     “I apologize for not making an introduction,” Theo said. “This is my daughter and apprentice, Nick. She is a very skilled arborist herself.”
     Nick puffed up at her mother’s praise and the mayor’s disbelieving expression.
     “She has been helping me investigate this ironwood blight. And she asks a good question. How long has the grove been here?” Theo asked.
     “Ten years,” said the mayor. “We have always treated it with the very best care. It is extremely valuable to Springhaven.”
     Theo’s eyes twitched, but it was so slight Nick didn’t think the mayor would notice. Theo turned the odd plum over in her hands, poking gently at its purplish skin. “Tell me more about these plums. Are they inedible?”
     The mayor made a disgusted look. “Of course! Who would eat that? I didn’t hire you to ask ridiculous questions. I thought you were an arborist, Master Sixsmith, not a piemaker.”
     Her assistant cleared their throat delicately. “The flavor is very bitter and causes a bit of an upset stomach.”
     “Thank you.” Theo smiled at the assistant and tossed the plum to Nick, who caught it easily. “That is very curious. When did the symptoms first appear?”
     “The farmers didn’t say anything until the fruit began to ripen.” The mayor sniffed in disapproval.        “Perhaps we could have done something if they had noticed sooner.”
     “I’m sure they know their orchards best,” Theo said.
     “They know as much as farmers know,” the mayor said.
     “Exactly.” Theo was smiling placidly, as she had been since the mayor started talking, but Nick recognized the look on her mother’s face. That was the look Theo wore when she wanted to shove a distraction aside and get to work—and right now the mayor was a distraction.
     Theo often said that being an arborist meant dealing with people as well as trees, and the people were always going to be more difficult. Nick was glad dealing with people wasn’t part of her job, at least not yet. Nobody took an eleven-year-old seriously, especially not one who was short and freckled, with messy brown hair tied back in a ponytail, mismatched patches on her trousers, and mud on her boots.
     It went both ways: Nick had trouble taking people like the mayor seriously. She didn’t see the point in talking to somebody who didn’t know anything and wasn’t interested in listening to people who did.
     Nobody knew as much about the magical ironwood blight as Theo. It was a relatively new blight, only spreading within the last year or two, with a wide variety of symptoms. The disease always struck an ironwood grove first, afflicting the sickly trees with patches of dark, soft wood. Next, it would begin to have magical effects on the surrounding fields, forests, and farms. Those effects varied a lot, so it was a difficult blight to study, but Theo and Nick had been tracking it carefully for over a year.
     Nick ignored the adults to examine the strange plum. It was firm and smooth, exactly as a plum should be; it smelled sweet and ripe. Even though the assistant had warned of a bad taste and a stomachache, she wanted to take a bite of it, to test it for herself. She thought maybe just a lick of the juice wouldn’t hurt. It might give her some valuable information.
     Nick pressed her thumb into the soft flesh, right into a seam where the petals would be wrapped in the sepals, if it were the flower bud it appeared to be. Her fingernail split the skin easily and juice welled up.
     But before Nick could decide if she really wanted to taste it, the plum continued to open. It split right along the seams, unfurling with a strange, soggy sluggishness. Nick yelped in surprise and dropped the plum.
     “Nick?” Theo said, alarmed. “Are you hurt?”
     It landed on the muddy ground with a soft splat, but it didn’t stop opening. The purplish-red skin parted to reveal a pale yellow inside.
     “What did you do? What did she do?” the mayor asked.
     “All I did was break the skin,” Nick said. There was still a bit of juice on her thumb. She wiped it on her trousers rather than tasting it. “I swear that’s all I did.”
     As they stared down at it, the plum blossomed into a five-petaled flower. It resembled a plum blossom, except that in its center, where a cluster of stamens would normally surround the pistil, there was a tight yellow knot of something that looked soft, almost feathery.
     That little yellow shape trembled and elongated, as though waking up from a nap with a lazy stretch. With one short, energetic shake, it spread open to reveal butterfly wings. It wasn’t a proper butterfly, as it had no body or legs, but the wings fluttered and it rose a few inches into the air, its bright yellow color seeming to glow. Nick gasped in delight.
     Her surprise turned to dismay when the butterfly wobbled and tumbled to the ground. Its wings were uneven and crinkled; it tried again but could not lift more than an inch off the ground. After the second try, it collapsed into the mud, the gleaming yellow now muted. A few raindrops were all it took for the butterfly to disintegrate into a soft yellow powder.
     Theo crouched to study the remains of the plum blossom. She drew gardening shears from her tool belt and used them to nudge the plum. It was now motionless. Whatever magic had caused the plum to open like a flower and sprout a butterfly was gone.
     Theo looked up at the mayor’s assistant. “I take it this is the strangeness that has people talking?”
     “Yes,” said the assistant. “The rumors are getting a bit . . .dramatic.”
     “We can’t have our summer harvest turning into—into that.” The mayor’s voice was high and strained. “This can’t be what Springhaven is known for! It will be a disaster! Nobody will buy our crops ever again. How long will it take to fix it?”
     Theo held out her hand; Nick dug around in her bag until she found a small jar. Theo scraped the plum into the jar and sealed it closed. “Nick and I are going to take a look at your ironwood grove first. We’ll let you know what we find.”
     “That’s it?” said the mayor. “That’s all you have to say?”
     Theo’s thin smile returned as she stood up. “For now. Why don’t you go back to town and get out of the rain? It will take us some time to complete our examination—we do like to be very thorough. I don’t want to keep you from your important duties.”
     The mayor looked like she might object, but before she could speak a gust of wet wind whipped around them. She grimaced and shook droplets from her sleeve. Her assistant subtly wiped their face dry.
     “Very well,” said the mayor. “You will give your report at the end of the day.”
     “Perfect,” Theo said cheerfully.
     She kept smiling until the mayor and her assistant had walked out of earshot. Then she let out a sigh and shook her head.
     “The rain’s stopping already,” Nick pointed out. There was even a bit of sun peeking through the clouds over the green hills.
     “Yes, but at least they’re out of our way for now,” Theo said. She handed the sample jar to Nick and tucked the gardening shears into her belt. “Let’s get to work.”

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