Stella and the Golden Crystal

Book excerpt: Imagine a boundless palette upon which musings can soar, where young minds turn toadstools into tables for mice or mossy banks into condos for moles. Enter a world where faeries dance over sparkling streams, their wings shimmering, while malevolent beasts of legend peer out from the dark, craggy caves in some forgotten valley. In the tradition of Redwall, Wind in the Willows, and Mistmantle Chronicles, with a little splash of Lord of the Rings-style adventure, comes Stella and the Golden Crystal. Stella is a small gray squirrel, a reluctant heroine who must embark on a quest to recover the missing Crystal DOr, a mystical gem of great power stolen away by the goblins who dwell in the high mountain caves in the distant Valley of No Trees, a place no young squirrel would dare go alone. The goblins are bent on discovering a way to turn the faerie magic of the Crystal DOr to ill. A clumsy rabbit, a pair of fellow orphan squirrels, a beaver, an ermine, and a marmot make up some of the unlikely allies who join Stella in her attempt to save the Woodland Realm.