I read this so long ago, I forgot the title for years and squealed with delight when I figured out again what it was called. I should really re-read it.

My friend handed me this book and told me I HAD to read it. I'm glad she did. Fantasy is my old comfort zone from youth so it is still the genre I take on when I want to snug into a well-worn old cloak. (: This book (and I imagine series) can be added into that list.

I love trees and the idea of living in trees, so that was a big plus. The idea of lesser gravity and larger plants was incredibly appealing, as was the idea of these humans who could glide around in the treetops. I loved the focus on Peace and Joy, especially when it was brought up later that the 'grey areas' of humanity still existed.

I found myself liking many of the characters and the mystery of the world very much. I find I'm always wishing for more talk of race (I was so excited when a dark-skinned character was mentioned, and a good set-up for clear racism); it wasn't to be so and I've been spoiled by some of the other books I've read.

I think some people have complained about the predictability of the plot. I didn't mind, but that may be again due to the comfort of it: I wasn't looking for something new and exciting that would blow my brain out of the water. I liked the familiarity of the plot.

All in all, I loved it!

How did I not read this as a child??? My librarian mother brought me home lots of fantasy and lots of Zilpha Keatley Snyder (I felt that The Egypt Game was about me - almost literally) - so how could I not have read this Snyder fantasy? Unless I tried reading it and was put off by the dense and formal writing style, so different from her other books.
Anyway, I've read it now and will eagerly read the next 2 in the series. Great world-building!

Apparently the popularity of this book and its sequels were attributed to some old school video game. It was recommended to me by a website I can no longer find. Someone did an extensive listing of mostly fantasy books from The Hobbit to current series circa 2000ish.
It took me years to find and buy them.
So I am saddened to say, I although I enjoyed the first book. (Below the Root, I found the rest of the series And All Between (Green Sky, #2) Until the Celebration (Green Sky, #3) grew tedious by the end.

A sensitive boy, living in a strange tree-top kingdom, risks everything to find the secret of the land below.

My older sister and I used to play an eerily enchanting video game on the Commodore 64 in the mid-80s called Below the Root. I think I mostly watched my sister play because she knew what she was doing and I was a bit young for it. The game had such a unique aesthetic (characters gliding through a forest of enormous trees) and it generated such strange feelings in me that it has stayed with me through the years. I noticed this book cover in a used bookstore recently and was surprised to find that this strange game was based on a 1975 Lois Lowry-esque book. I ended up enjoying the book though it wasn't super compelling.

Two stars, which is generous. (Strange, because I remember liking The Egypt Game; Snyder missed the mark here, though, badly.) Despite presenting the reader with an interesting world and some potentially fascinating philosophical questions, this book was SO BORING until the last forty pages, in which everything happens. Beyond the major pacing problems, there was the classic issue of telling-not-showing. I had buckets full of unnecessary background information dumped over me like cold water every three pages, which threw me right out of the narrative. I don't know about you, but when my mom reminds me to "remember the Golden Rule," I don't respond with "yes, mother, you're right" followed by a three-page treatise about the history of kindergarten education in my society.

This book is clearly intended as a coming of age story about a young person (Raamo) who is selected to join an elite group of decision-makers (Ol-zhaan) and learns terrible secrets about the world in which he lives (secret subjugation of free thinkers). There are many notable books in this subgenre written for the same age group that I would recommend instead (The Giver or Zahrah the Windseeker).

Whatever Snyder's intentions, Below the Root reads like a hand-wringing morality play about the dangers of groupthink and standardized tests and how power corrupts. And for a book of only 175 pages, it drags on forever.

I love treehouses, so found parts of this intriguing (maybe inspired in part by GREEN MANSIONS, as well as interest in "new" field of ecology at time of writing.

"Negative emotions are banned, and the government controls resource distribution" could just about be the elevator speech for a modern YA dystopia--but Snyder does it decades earlier, and better. Characterization and motivation are subtly nuanced, and there's enough worldbuilding peeking out behind the edges here to fill an SF doorstopper saga. I was pleasantly surprised with how well this held up to adult reading, and also by the charming illustrations, which I don't think were included in the reprint I read as a child.

I read this as a young adult and enjoyed the trilogy.

This was one of my favorite books as a child. Rereading it as an adult, I was struck by many things. First, the dialog was overly simple. Second, i see now where I acquired my life long love of treehouses and my fantasy of gliding through the forest. Last, I have no recollection of the dystopia the society turns out to be. I think it may have gone over my head 40 years ago. Not a brilliant book, but I had to give it a high rating because it influenced me so much.

Reading this book (and the other two in the series) as a pre-teen is what made me want to write my own stories. In spite of not yet getting much beyond nanowrimo.org participation, the inspiration has not been wasted. I hope I can find copies to re-read these.