It Came from the Trees

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. (July)