by M Dane
Traitor in the Trees is an interesting blend of fantasy and science fiction, with elves and dwarves and funny looking animals in a tree world, but also elements of technology and the evidence of aliens. Ricci is a human thrust into this world but surprisingly finds himself feeling at home, making new friends and excelling at many tasks and training at school. But someone is methodically stealing the Protection Seeds that protect the tree city and if the last one is taken, it could spell doom for everyone in that world. Ricci has his suspicions about who did it but no one will believe him and by the time everyone knows the truth, it may be too late.
At first I didn't care for the beginning as it felt like the reader was just thrust into the middle of a story and it does continue with little backstory throughout a lot of the book. This makes it fast-paced for sure, but leaves the reader with a lot of questions as you go along. But as you get into the story, there's some excellent world building with this strange land high up in the trees and fun character interactions. There were also some interesting deviations from the normal fantasy expectations, such as the dwarf loving vegetables and the elf being the meat-lover, for example. Overall I found it to be a fun children's book.