JF-Sny

Pairs well with playing the Commodore 64 version of Below the Root.

One of the gentlest works of literature I've ever read. Oddly entrancing.

Read it when I was 13 or so (I think this was the first "serious" book I have read in the English language), then re-read it five years later and found that it did not lose any of its magic. It is about people who live in tree tops on a planet with low gravity and giant trees, with houses and other buildings on the branches. It is a utopian (or rather dystopian?) society led by clerics, where violence and anger is unheard of, more or less as a result of indoctrination.

There are stories of fearsome monsters who allegedly inhabit the forest floor, and people are forbidden even to look at the ground. In the end a young and curious boy discovers that the forest floor is inhabited not by monsters, but by people alike them, cast out and banished from their society - and he ends up questioning all he has been taught.

I remember finding this book in the local library when I was in middle school. It made such an impression that I recently googled using the bits I remembered to find the book and reread it (I love technology). It was just as interesting a read as I remembered. I loved the world building and morality tale aspects and it was very well written, especially considering that it's a children's/YA novel.

As a child, I loved playing the computer game Below the Root. It was so mysterious and beautiful, with complex NPCs whose actions changed depending on which main character you chose to play. I’ve hunted this game down and have been able to play it again using a DOS emulator. Imagine my surprise when as an adult I discovered it was based on this book/series! I had to hunt it down and read it.

Almost impossible to find for purchase for less than $40 a book, I was thrilled to find this available digitally from my local library. Hooray for public libraries!

This book was phenomenal. There’s so much going on at so many levels. At a basic level this is a coming of age YA adventure/quest, with an unlikely hero and his friends. At deeper levels, the book tackles things like social issues, ideological (and ethnic/cultural) division, political corruption, corporate vs individual responsibility, how to bring about needed change in a real and lasting way that does the most good/least harm. Deep things for a “children’s” book.

Having each character tell their own story as part of the narrative kept things engaging while filling in backstory and moving the plot forward. As each new character was introduced and their backstory shared, I instantly recalled their character from the computer game and it made the universe come alive even more. It also shows the reader that sharing our stories and listening to others’ stories has the power to transform our thoughts and beliefs (without the author having to explicitly state it). Conversely, the predicament the characters find themselves in also shows that those in power can craft and share their version of a story to attain their own ends. Storytelling has power to transform. What stories do we tell and why, and are they true, beneficial, harmful? That is a timeless question.

Lovely book. Can’t wait to see what happens in the next installment.

Interesting in its own right and for anyone who remembers the classic video game. A pacifist, arboreal society turns out to be hiding dark secrets that they must confront before approaching true peace.

With a vividly drawn world with lots of interesting details--the low gravity, for instance, allows people to glide using special garments--and some nonthreatening but intriguing suspense.

One of my favorite childhood books. I think I was around 10 or 11 when I read this.

I fell in love with the world of Green Sky when I was only 3 years old. Sounds preposterous, but it's true. I sat watching my dad play the Commodore game by Windham Classics for hours, and hours. By the time I was 4-5 I could beat it myself by memory - but I always would call him at work if I forgot how to load the game (Load "*", 8, 1) hahaha.

When I was old enough, my mom told me the game was based on a trilogy - and so it began.

These will always be my favorite books, period. It even beat out Alice in Wonderland which was my favorite until I finished Below the Root. I didn't even have to finish the other two - I had already found the books that captured my heart.

Neat little fact I became of aware of years later - in the game you can actually hurt people with weapons. I had never tried, and I still haven't. Something I'm proud of to this day. In a letter I received from Zilpha Keatley Snyder, she said she was happy to have created a game where the goal of completion involved no killing.

Even my alias of over 15 years reflects my love of these books =) I was kindarsky on AOL - until the username character limit was increased and I became kindarspirit forever after. People in real life actually call me kindar which is weird, but I am very used to it now ;)

I read this many years ago, but I remember that it made a big impression on me. I really enjoyed the imaginative world.

Leave it to The Amazing Zilpha to create a fantasy world so unique and unfamiliar, yet so engaging! The worldbuilding of Green-Sky never overwhelms the story, but instead is deftly woven into it. It can't be easy to construct a believable high fantasy setting without slowing the plot to a crawl, but ZKS somehow did it.

The arboreal world of the Kindar has so many clever details that never would have occurred to me. Fire isn't used because it naturally does not mix well with wood and leaves, and metal is alien to the Kindar because they have no stone from which to extract ore. It is implied that Green-Sky is probably an alien planet that humans escaped to after some sort of apocalypse on Earth. The low gravity and seven moons are strong clues to this. This makes it pretty fun to look for other clues. One thing I noticed was a lot of names that were very similar to various nature-related words. Here is my list so far:
Raamo: "rama" is Spanish for "branch"
Valdo: "wald"(pronounced "vald") is German for "forest"
Pomma: "pomme", French for "apple"
Hearba: "hierba", Spanish for "grass"
Baya: Spanish for "berry"
Orbora: sounds like arbor or arboreal
Ciela: "cielo" is Spanish for "sky"
Haba: Spanish for "bean"

I did guess the main plot twist quite early on, but it is still a good twist in spite of that, so I have no complaints on that point. And there will doubtless be more surprises(good and bad alike) in the rest of the trilogy!

I LOVE this series. On the surface, its a children's story of a boy coming of age. But there are depths that you'll only come to appreciate as an adult. Questions about human nature and the role of society. This series has grown with me from childhood to adult.