Janet Taylor Lisle
Forest

“The invasion occurred just before sunrise while everyone was still asleep. There was a faint rustle, the smallest scrape. Then up through branches the alien climbed, stealthy as a hunting cat. Only her eyes, those huge glistening saucers, showed in the dark...”

To Amber Padgett, 12, the squirrel staring at her after her climb up the giant white oak looks astonishingly intelligent. To Woodbine, the girl focusing on him across the branchways looks like an alien—saucer-eyed and flat-nosed—but too remarkable to be threatening. If only the humans of Lower Forest were as perceptive as Amber, or the squirrels of Upper Forest as open-minded as Woodbine, the two sides would never go to war. But once fear takes hold, the lines are drawn. The humans feel menaced, the mink-tailed squirrels invaded. Amber's father grabs a gun while, up in the trees, a villainous leader named Barker rises to power. Squirrel armies begin to swarm overhead.
Reviews
Publisher's Weekly, starred review:
"In the tradition of E. B. White and George Seldon, the author spins a fanciful animal yarn that conveys universal aspects of human nature whle tracing how misguided fears lead to war."  
Awards and Honors
American Bookseller Pick of the Lists
Bank Street School Children's Book of the Year, 1994
School Library Journal Best Book of the Year
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Janet Taylor Lisle
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