The Murklands series – The Toadling’s Forest

Ylva Karlsson & Katarina Strömgård

Everything in this book is true.
I wrote it down because it’s so strange. And I might as well
admit it.
It all happened because I rode the bus too far. And I rode the bus too far because I was crying.
But I’m not going to say why. That’s not part of the story.

It’s in the Murklands that Enid accidentally gets off the bus that day, a forest almost no one has entered, because it’s so dense, tangled, and swampy. Everything there just feels a little… off.
There are thorny bushes that almost seem to move, shady birds, and flowers that stare. And then there’s the toadling, the slimy, growling creature that Enid must rescue. But that’s not the only strange thing in the Murklands. For some reason, the forest seems to want to draw Enid in – and keep her there. What kind of place is this, really? What is that enormous creature howling among the trees? And how is Enid supposed to care for the injured toadling?
On the edge of the forest lives Peter with his six-legged cat. Maybe he can help Enid. Though not with the most important thing, of course – the thing about her mother, the thing she has no intention of talking about.

“The language is lively; humor and seriousness are mixed
with ease, but above all, it is empathetic – Enid’s elevenyear-old voice is written with confident intimacy. /…/ A book
whose sequel readers will eagerly await.” BTJ, 5/5