Treasure Forest

by Cat Bodhri

Ace Books; 288 pp.; $14

This is a sweet book. Mostly a juvenile, I think. But the most enthusiastic word I can come up with is, well, “like.” I liked this book. It is a deep, quiet stream of a tale, very much about maintaining our connection to the natural world around us so we do not lose the essentials of our spirit. A quote from poet Gerald Manley Hopkins, “The dearest freshness deep down in things” is a mantra throughout this book.

The Maclennon family moves to take possession of Grandma Daphne’s house in the deep woods after she dies. Lily, Grandma Daphne’s daughter, doesn’t want to return to her childhood home because of trauma she suffered there while growing up. The husband Peter is a pleasant, confused cipher in this tale and Lily, frankly, is mostly a hysterical, touchy woman. Because of how she is presented, I don’t much care what her issues are. Neither parent is fleshed out much. The subsidiary characters in this novel are much more interesting.

The two children, Ben and Sara, are the stars of this tale (along with a few others). It is their journey into their inner selves and how they help their parents gain their equilibrium with the natural world that is the heart of the matter. I am not real sure of their ages though at the beginning of the book Ben is in seventh grade and Sara is twelve.

The big drama in this novel is that Sara goes missing one afternoon. Of course, after she’s been soundly told to not wander off. She goes missing for several days…and eventually the search for her because a bit of a media circus. The scary bit is there is a lone wolf of a man out there in the woods, with a connection to Lily that lives in a burrow in the ground (sort of a rough-edged smial like a hobbit). He lives off the land and can “talk” to ravens and coyotes. His name is Daggett and he is the boogie man of the tale. He’s moderately creepy and has something to do with Sara’s disappearance.

The book is a pretty, moderately interesting journey. There are no real surprises and though there is drama, it is not that compelling. The writing is fine; Bodhri constructs tight little paragraphs and short chapters. Overall, the novel is esoteric and a bit cosmic. Both children learn not only about the well of stillness/wholeness each soul contains, but some practical information as well. This is the start of “The Forest Inside” trilogy. But unless Bodhri does something very unexpected in the next two books, I think I’ll pass on them. - Sue Martin