For some reason Synder decided to write the same book twice: this one from the perspective of Terra, who lives below the Root, and its sister book Below The Root from the perspective of Raamo, who above the Root in the trees. Until the Celebration finishes off the trilogy.

These stories take place on a alien world where most of the people are peaceful and loving, and live their lives in the towering and massive trees. Due to the low gravity, they all glide from branch to branch using suits with built in wings. However, a small number of young children are sometimes lost by falling off of a tree before learning to glide. The ground is an alien place that is feared, as they are told that terrible monsters live under the giant Root that lines the forest floor.

Raamo, who is training as a priest, ventures down to the floor and discovers Terra, who he takes (incorrectly) to be a fallen child. In reality, she has squeezed out from below the Root.

A lovely story about the horrible things people can do in the name of good.

The second book of the Green Sky Trilogy ups the stakes a bit more, showing both that the powers of telekinesis and telepathy that have been waning in Green-sky could be regenerated by reunion with the Erdlings, and that there are powerful forces in Green-sky who will stop at nothing — possibly even extending to the use of violence, the strongest taboo possible in the society — to prevent such a thing. The focus of the book is mainly on Pomma, Raamo’s sister, and Teera, her Erdling friend. It’s moderately enjoyable, much like the first, and probably great for 10 or 11 year old kids, as I was when I read these first, but the series doesn’t hold up super well for adult reading.

One of my favorite books as a kid. I was amazed that it wasn't an actual sequel, but takes place at the same time as the first book. It's told from another girl's perspective. It was great. Good books to remember for years to come.

(I'll always picture myself laying under tree roots, getting a splotchy suntan!)

This is the sequel to Below the Root, although it does not begin where that left off. Instead, Teera's story is told from her perspective and that of the other Erdlings. The endpoint of the former book comes about halfway through this one, when the thread of narrative is picked back up from the perspectives of other characters. The players are gearing up to reveal the secret of the Erdlings and attempt to integrate them into Kinda society, but there are still those, such as D'ol Regle who will stop at nothing to prevent this.
With such fascinating world-building, well-developed characters, and a very suspenseful plot, Snyder once again proves she was doing Young Adult Fantasy before the genre was invented, and doing it very, very well.

I accidentally picked up this book out of order with the rest, and although I did not know exactly what was going on, I really enjoyed it. Still, I have to read the rest of the books to understand the characters again.

First of all, here's what's implied: Our home planet has been destroyed due to an extraordinary, yet unspecified act of violence.

Second, some background: A handful of humans who survived this disaster fled to Green Sky, a planet of low gravity whose surface is covered by trees so large that could easily dwarf the mighty redwoods. It is here, among the treetops, that these survivors make their homes and create a new life based on the principles of peace, love, and happiness and put all their faith in a secrative and exclusive group of leaders who call themselves the Ol'Zhaan. Fearing that history will repeat itself, these leaders make all forms of voilence (and even the mention of it), as well as all expressions of strong emotions, illegal. They erase their tragic past from the history books, and it is eventually forgotton. Anyone who opposes this way of thinking or who wishes the general public to know the truth about their past is quickly disposed of, imprisoned in an underground prison that is covered by an elaborate and magical root system. To explain the disappearances of these, Ol'Zhaan tell the general public that the missing must have been taken by the terrible, flesh-eating monsters who live beneath the root.

Eventually, a Pleasantville-like community of cluless, peace-loving flower children-like citizens is established. The people are happy in their ignorance and in their naive (and almost moronic) trust in their leaders. The only real threat they know if is the (false) threat from below.

But escape from below the root is impossible.

Or is it?

Flash forward a few thousand generations: The original few human prisoners below the root has grown into a large community who call themselves the Erdlings. Here, the people are experienceing the worst famine in their history--and signs point to things only getting worse. People are desperate. So when 8-year-old Teera learns her beloved pet will soon be killed and eaten, she runs away... as far away as she can. Soon she is lost in a system of abandon mining tunnles. It is here where Teera finds an opening in the root large enough for a child of her size to squeeze through. She escapes into the forest.

Meanwhile, in the treetop community, things have been going downhill. The general clueless innocence of the Kindar is costing them dearly, although only the Ol'Zhaan know the extent of this. The powers of Spirit (not unlike the famed Force) that were once so common have become nothing more than myth. Wanting to get to the bottom of this disappearance of Spirit, the Ol'Zhaan send two young apprentices on a quest to solve this mystery. This quest leads them to the forest floor.

It is here they discover Teera.

Thinking her to at first be a Fallen (an infant who fell from the treetops and was rescued by those rebels imprisoned under the root), they take her home and she becomes part of their family.

Then they learn the truth about Teera.

And the truth about those who live below the root.

And that there ARE no monsters... Or, at least, the monsters aren't what everyone has been led to believe (in fact, said monsters have been living among them for generations)

And they come to the conclusion that the people below the root must be freed. And that the people of Green Sky communitues must be told the less-than-desirable truth about their past. Even if it means they will have to face up to the terrible feeling and emotions the truth will bring. Even if it means the end of the Ol'Zhaan.

But there are those in the Ol'Zhaan who will stop at notning to prevent the truth from being exposed. Even if it means resorting to the violent ways the order swore to protect against.

The Green Sky Trilogy is one of my favorites. I re-read them at least once a year.

I concur with the general sentiment that this is the weakest of the trilogy. It's hard to get around the entire first half of the book being mostly the same stuff we just read in Below the Root. Once we get into the second half, it's good though.

More than half of the book just retells what has happened in the previous one - from another perspective, but in a nearly identical way, even with the same lines of dialogue. This takes away a lot from the magic of the book, which otherwise touches a number of important topics.

As a combined entity, I really enjoy this series--but structurally, this book is a mess in a way that goes beyond Middle Book Syndrome. The first half retells portions of book one from a different perspective, while the second half is all lead-up for book three. I wonder if there was external pressure to make this series into a trilogy, because it would I think have been much more natural as a duology--or as a single-volume work.

I don't put much stock in the universality of "middle book syndrome", but in the case of And All Between, I see why the term has been applied to it in several reviews. I loved that much of this book was told through the experiences of Teera and other Erdlings, especially since it gave a clearer picture of life in Erda and how it contrasts against the world of the tree-dwelling Kindar. And I don't mind a bit of recap in sequels, but it went on for too long here. There isn't much new material added to the conflict until the last half or third of the story.

The conclusion is suitably dramatic and tense, but Raamo seemed like an afterthought in this story. He does almost nothing of interest here, while Neric and Genaa are exploring Erda and even the two little girls get more page time than him, despite doing little besidesplaying the pensing games that eventually become uniforce.

The problems that will arise in the process of integrating the Kindar and the Erdlings are set up clearly and logically. How will a society that entirely forgoes meat on moral grounds come to accept a group that has long eaten it out of necessity and may cling to their old ways? How will they relate to each other when one group is taught to suppress negative emotions while the other freely expresses them? There are still a lot of good ideas in this book, and I will still read the third one, but hopefully that one will pick up a lot of the narrative slack left by Book 2.

FOUND IT! I read this book as a kid and LOVED it. I've been trying to find it again for YEARS, not knowing it's name or author.

Great adventure story about a little girl. LOVED LOVED LOVED this as a kid.