Wildwood: The Wildwood Chronicles, Book 1 is a 2011 children's fantasy novel by The Decemberists' Colin Meloy, illustrated by his wife Carson Ellis. The 541-page novel, inspired by classic fantasy novels and folk tales, is the story of two seventh-graders who are drawn into a hidden, magical forest, while trying to rescue a baby kidnapped by crows. They get caught up in an epic struggle, and learn of their connection to a magical parallel world while confronting adult authorities who are often cowardly or dishonest. The natural beauty and local color of Portland, Oregon, features prominently in the book.
Ellis collaborated closely with Meloy throughout the writing phase to produce 85 illustrations, which, along with the old-fashioned book design, were particularly praised by reviewers. The majority of reviews were positive, on balance, saying the book was an engrossing story appropriate for its target age, but they also noted that the plot sometimes dragged, that familiar fantasy motifs were sometimes overused, and that stereotypical Portland culture was a little overplayed. Wildwood was on the New York Times Best Seller list of Children's Chapter Books for two weeks and tied for the 2012 E.B. White Read Aloud Award.
Plot
Part One
Prue is in a park with Mac when "a murder of crows" swoops down and carries him away. Prue runs after him (followed by her classmate Curtis), and sees the crows carry him into the Impassable Wilderness. Prue goes home to her parents and manages to make it look like she still has Mac. The next morning, she heads for the Wilderness, but discovers Curtis has once more followed her. Prue does not want Curtis along, but before she can send him back, they are separated while fleeing from Coyote Soldiers. Curtis is captured and taken to Alexandra (the leader of the coyotes), while Prue rides a mail truck to South Wood. There, Prue finds a Kafkaesque bureaucracy and dysfunctional government. Police state tactics and paranoia over foreign threats are used to keep the regime in power. Prue eventually meets the Crown Prince Owl Rex of the Avian Principality, who tells her how Alexandra came to be exiled shortly before he himself is arrested.
Alexandra's son Alexei died in a horse-riding accident, and then her husband Grigor died of heartbreak; to remedy his death, Alexandra hired the two greatest toymakers in all of Wildwood to fashion her son a new body that was later brought to life by recalling his soul via Black Magic. Later Alexei learned the truth of his death and rebirth and purposefully destroyed a crucial part of his inner workings, resulting in his second death. Alexandra was exiled for the use of Black Magic and plotted her revenge. Owl Rex proposes that Prue cross Wildwood and find help from the Mystics of North Wood. Meanwhile, Alexandra is flattering Curtis with a fancy uniform and commissions him into the coyote army as an officer. In a battle against bandits, Curtis breaks a howitzer by dumb luck, becoming a coyote war hero in the operation. He then finds Mac in Alexandra's headquarters and she shows him her plan to sacrifice the baby to the magical ivy of the Wood, which will allow the ivy to spread rapidly and consume the Wood and its inhabitants. Alexandra offers to share the power with Curtis, but he says no and is locked away in a cage suspended from the ceiling with some other captured bandits and unfaithful coyotes.
Part Two
Prue flies to North Wood on the back of an eagle sent by Owl Rex, but is shot down by a coyote archer. She is found by Brendan, the King of the Bandits, who offers to help. However, they are captured in a coyote attack and Brendan is imprisoned with Curtis while Prue is taken to Alexandra. Alexandra promises her that she will find Mac, convincing Prue to leave the Woods. In prison, Curtis reveals Alexandra's plan and then leads an escape, earning the trust of the coyote and bandit prisoners. Prue returns home, where she learns from her parents that they were only able to conceive Prue and Mac because they had made a deal with Alexandra to use her magic, but that Alexandra's price was the second child that Prue's mother bore. Realizing that she has been tricked, Prue returns to Wildwood to rescue Mac.