Willa of the Wood
A #1 New York Times bestselling middle grade adventure set in 1900 in the Great Smoky Mountains — a young forest girl with ancient magic must choose between the dying world she knows and the dangerous humans she's been taught to fear.
Twelve-year-old Willa is a night-spirit of the Great Smoky Mountains — her clan’s best thief, trained to creep into the homes of the day-folk under cover of darkness and take what they won’t miss. It’s dangerous work. The day-folk kill whatever they don’t understand. But Willa will do anything to win the approval of the padaran, the charismatic leader of her Faeran people.
When Willa’s curiosity leaves her hurt and stranded in the day-folk world, she discovers something that changes everything: not all humans are the monsters she was taught to fear. And the magical foundations that have protected the Faeran for generations are crumbling from within.
Set in the same world as Beatty’s beloved Serafina series (though no prior knowledge is needed), this atmospheric adventure weaves together Cherokee history, Appalachian lore, and the old-growth forests of what is now Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A #1 New York Times bestseller, Amazon Best Book of 2018, and recommended by the Great Smoky Mountains National Park itself.
Thoughts from a Looper:
As you cruise the Carolina ICW, Willa’s world is somewhere out there to the west — but it’s worth knowing it’s far out there. The Great Smoky Mountains sit on the Tennessee border, nearly 400 miles from the coast. What you’re navigating through is the flat coastal plain and the sounds, with the Blue Ridge rising somewhere well beyond the horizon.
That distance actually makes the book an interesting companion for this stretch — the coast and the mountains feel like completely different worlds, and in a way that’s exactly the tension Willa lives in: the ancient forested highlands versus the wider human world encroaching from every direction.
Robert Beatty, who wrote this, actually lives in Asheville, North Carolina — right in the heart of that mountain country — and it shows in every page.
A note for families reading aloud together:
This book runs on the darker side for middle grade. Willa’s clan is dying, and the story doesn’t look away from that — there is real loss, death, and some scenes of children in peril that hit hard. It’s handled with care and ultimately resolves with hope, but younger or more sensitive readers may find parts of it heavy.
It’s a book best suited to ages 9–12 reading independently, or families who are comfortable with those themes in a read-aloud. If your kids loved the Serafina series, they’ll be right at home here. If this is their first Beatty book, it’s a great place to start — no prior reading required.
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