I thought this would be a great fit and the writing was good. It failed to capture my attention and I just don't think it will grab my students attention.

Alternatative realities, but not a time travel story. This is the story of Stuey and Ella who share the same birthday and become friends the month before their 10th birthdays when they 'disappear' from each others' lives. Will they ever find each other again?
Fans of Pete Hautman's Klaatu Diskos trilogy will enjoy this story for younger readers, along with young science fiction fans.
This book was provided to me for free through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read. I LOVED the friendship in this book and that's what really kept me reading. I will definitely recommend to students in my classroom.

Stuey and Elly Rose’s friendship made this book! I love a book where everything is wonderful until suddenly they are not. The two main characters work to make things right again. Engaging, with a great sense of suspense and magical realism- too!

This book intrigued me at the start - fairy circles, high concept talk (hello quantum mechanics), but then - it kind of stalled in the middle. It was a quiet book - and it felt like it was more a character study than plot-driven - mostly because the plot was kind of running in place.

By the finish the ends wrapped up neatly, but I was still left scratching my head. The writing itself was lovely. I wish I loved it more.

This book caught me off-guard. I wasn't sure where it was going, in a good way. I was equally scared, sad, charmed, and nostalgic at different times (often at the same time...yes, I know that sounds odd). As a middle school librarian, I was not sure about the young age of the protagonists at the start of the book, but I later realized it was necessary since the characters age and lose their youthful imaginations, which is so essential to the plot. I think middle schoolers are the perfect age to "get" this concept. Which brings me to the next "mind-blowing" element of this book. The reader needs to be able to sustain a level of dual dimensions and diverging realities. The plot is complex, but for those readers who stick with it, they will be rewarded with a unique and very satisfying experience.

I really, really wanted to like this one. And I tried to like it. But it just didn’t grab me. Started off well enough but I had a bad time connecting with any of the characters.

You don't often come across quantum mechanics in middle grade novels, but we have a many-worlds interpretation here, and it does make you think. This book has a lot going on, but it comes together nicely, and I found it hard to put down. We have Stuey and Elly, who share the same birthday and decide that makes them soulmates. They have a secret place in the woods that serves as both castle and ship for the adventures of their imaginations, until one day when they feel something shift, and Elly disappears before Stuey's eyes. What follows covers the usual things- dealing with the loss of someone, making new friends, growing out of playing make believe, the world changing, but also deals with the possibility of multiple timelines, alternate realities, and ghosts of the past affecting the present. How will Stuey and Elly set things right and fix the split in reality? I stayed up all night finding out!

This book started off so intriguingly. But then it dropped off a little towards the middle of the book.
I love the integration of fairy circles and other folk-lore based mythos.
This book was well written and I can see it being popular within the age group that it is intended for.

I think this book walks a really weird line that I wasn't 100% expecting. It's almost a mix of a time travel saga and your normal, everyday Middle Grade contemporary story. Except... it's not really time travel and it's also not really alternate realities. It's something in between, and I can't deny that it took me a little while to come to terms with. This book is absolutely original, and it falls into a category that I hadn't read anything from before.

Stuey and Ella meet, and become fast friends. There's a mystery involved, revolving around their families. There are forts to be built in the overgrown forest, and the sad realities of big business taking over wild lands. There's even a mini story line that shows life during Stuey's grandfather's life, where discrimination was the norm and and hatred of another people was acceptable. This book has a lot going on, and not all of it seemed to flow exactly. In a way, I feel like there is so much that is interesting happening all at once that it kind of continuously overshadows itself.

I think my favorite part of this story, and what honestly kept me reading, was the fact that this book takes the reader back to a quieter, simpler time in childhood. A time when magic exists everywhere, where nature is a refuge, and where absolutely anything is possible. I loved the idea of an overgrown golf course that was retaken by the forest. It took me back to the days when I used to drag a pile of books, a blanket, and a whole basket of snacks out into the yard and just stay out there all day. I miss that. This book will make you remember, and that's fantastic.

Lots of unexpected elements in this one. We're dealing with physics and the Many Worlds theory here. THose are pretty big ideas for a middle grade novel. And it's a pretty wide time frame. We meet the main characters at age 9 and follow them into high school. The early chapters skew kind of young, the later ones somewhat old. The late chapters have elements of nostalgia.

Creative, whimsical, and utterly mind-blowing! Otherwood by Pete Hautman brings to life the story of best friends Stuey and Elly Rose. Upon learning that they have the same birthday and the same secret place in the woods, they declare themselves soul mates. The two friends have an unbreakable bond and play in the deadwood where their imaginations run free. When Elly mysteriously vanishes right in front of Stuey, he’s not sure what to think. And when no one believes what Stuey saw, he begins to believe that all of his grandfather’s ghost stories of the forest and his ramblings about alternate realities are true. Stuey is drawn to their secret place and to his surprise, he and Elly can see each other. Elly seems to be living in another world, the same but different. In Elly’s world, Stuey is the one that is missing. How did their worlds split apart? And most importantly, how can they bring it back together?

I loved the imagination of this book! While the overall story focuses on two different worlds on the same timeline, the book is also a coming-of-age story. Both Stuey and Elly come to terms with the loss of a friend, but also grapple with growing up and no longer playing make-believe. The book also takes a peek into family feuds and how those feuds affect one generation after another. A unique story of parallel universes and converging realities, Otherwood is a book I’d recommend to middle grade readers who also enjoyed A Wrinkle in Time.

A special thank you to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for allowing me to read this E-ARC. It’s definitely one I enjoyed and will never forget!

Stuey and his friend Elly Rose often play in a deadfall in the middle of an overgrown golf course that stretches between their two houses. One day when they play, reality splits. Grandpa Zach’s stories of lies, hatred, and people disappearing begin to make more sense. With a massive chasm between them, Stuey and Elly Rose need to repair what’s been broken.

Otherwood is a fascinating story that ignites wonder and awe with the world and stays with you long after you’re done reading.

I absolutely loved Otherwood by Pete Hautman! A little reminiscent of Bridge to Terabithia, this middle school novel had some heavier themes but such wonderful characters and a very creative world. I’d highly recommend for a mother/daughter mother/son book read. 4 stars, this book took me 1.5 hours to read. Thank you to @netgalley and @candlewickpress for giving me an advance review copy! .

4.5/5 stars
This was a very unique middle grade read. It starts out with the death of Stuey’s grandfather in a storm and that loss is felt throughout. Then Stuey and Elly Rose meet in the woods and, once they discover they share a birthday, Elly Rose declares that they are soul mates. There is a split in their reality and then the two of them must fight to get back to the way things were.

Otherwood is full of mystery and the plot can be a little confusing at times as it deals with some quantum physics and reality. What I like is that the author gives the readers small hints along the way vs. clobbering us over the head with obvious reveals that make the end completely predictable from early on. The characters are well-developed and the two points of view are extremely well done. The children are portrayed as children and use appropriate dialogue for their age which is a rarity in middle grade fiction. It was also delightfully suspenseful in a way that is perfect for the target audience age. There are some slightly dark topics as the characters deal with a family secret, grief and loss, but that is tempered by the positive themes of family and friendship.

Thank you to Netgalley and Candlewick Press for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Stuey is going on 9 and lives with his widowed mom and grandfather, who's his best friend. His grandfather has such incredible stories to tell about his father; a bootlegger who bought land to create a golf course and who disappeared without a trace one night. Grandpa Zach dies during an awful storm, and Mom locks away the pages of the book he was writing. There are family secrets that Zach is desperate to know about, but he puts that on hold when he meets Elly Rose, a girl his age who's new to his town. School's out, and his friends don't live nearby, so Elly and her amazing imagination sustain Zach - until something happens between their mothers; something neither of them want to discuss. Zach and Elly meet in secret in the woods, at Elly's "Castle Rose", where they share stories. One day, though, the unbelievable happens, and reality splits between the friends. Stuey and Elly Rose separately work to find one another and make things right again.

Candlewick's authors are bringing it this Fall! I've been making my way through their Fall list and have been consumed with each book on it. Otherwood is a fantastic story of friendship, secrets, and loss. We have two narratives that work readers through each main character's struggle to understand what's going on and how to fix things while peeling away the layers of secrets that engulf their families. There's some quantum physics and discussion on alternate reality that will interest science and fantasy fans, and the frustration of fighting against ingrained, linear thinking (i.e., adult thinking) will resonate with readers. Can forgiveness bring two worlds back together? Only one way to find out. Otherwood is a compulsively readable novel with likable characters and an incredible story. A definite must-add to middle grade collections, and a great book to give to your fantasy fans that want something a little more based in reality. Or that uses reality as a jumping-off point. This one's going on my Mock Newbery list. Booktalk this one with your When You Reach Me (Rebecca Stead) fans.
Pete Hautman is a National Book Award winner whose website has links to his author blog, teacher guides, and writing tips. Otherwood has starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly and Kirkus.

Stuey has few friends and is struggling with the death of his grandfather. When he and Elly strike up a friendship it is almost magical - as she says, they are "soul mates". They share a birthday and the same special place. But something strange happens - one day while talking at their place Elly disappears. Or is it Stuey who disappears? Both exist in different realities where the other one has disappeared and different things are happening around them. As time passes they see each other for a few moments here and there. Of course, everyone else thinks they are crazy. Can an uncovering of an old rivalry and disappearances bring their realities back together?

This was kind of odd and I slogged my way through most of it. I ended up liking the last 100 pages or so. Not sure if my readers will stick with it.

4.5 stars for Otherwood -- one of my favourite middle grade reads of the year!

We follow Stuey and his friend Elly Rose who each have magnificent imaginations and a love for the woods between their homes. Upon discovering they share a birthday, Elly Rose declares them soulmates and the two children spend countless hours playing in a deadfall in the middle of the woods. Until the day when something goes terribly wrong and the two must figure out how to try to put things back to the way they were.

This book reminded me so much of two of my favourite reads as a kid: The Stone in the Meadow and The Root Cellar. Mixing the other-worldly in with the everyday problems a kid faces, Otherwood strikes a fantastic balance that did not require much effort on my part to suspend my disbelief. The characters mostly all felt very real and I really cared what happened to Stuey and Elly Rose.

I love that small details are introduced very subtly throughout the book, and the true importance of the details only become apparent later in the story. I often get frustrated with kids' books that foreshadow so heavily that there's barely any reason to finish reading the book because I already know what's going to happen. That was not the case here. I was caught up in the story and couldn't wait to see how things would be resolved.

Thank you to NetGalley and Candlewick Press for providing me with a DRC of this book.

It took awhile to get going, so it took longer than normal to finish. it was a little hard to follow and felt a little disjointed in the midle but, the ending tied things back together nicely.

What I really enjoyed about this book is how the cover and the inner structure correspond. As the split colors on the former add up to become a beautiful whole, the two point of views in narration also join to create a beautiful story. I don't want to give the plot away, but I was charmed from the beginning till the end.

The chapters are also just about the perfect length for a younger audience, the style and the vocabulary are neither patronising nor hard to follow.