2026 DCL Reading Challenge: Book Set in a ForestLike this list

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• 2026 DCL Reading Challenge

  View on dcl.org

  Win a $200 gift card to Shanahan's Steakhouse in this year's random prize drawing of challenge finishers! Read any of the titles on this list, or choose your own, for your chance to win.

• Heartwood

  a Novel

  Gaige, Amity, 1972-

  Add Heartwood to your for later shelf

  A thriller about a lost hiker, frustrated rescuers, imagined conspiracies, and the woods along the Appalachian Trail.

• North Woods

  a Novel

  Mason, Daniel (Daniel Philippe)

  Add North Woods to your for later shelf

  Nestled in the North Woods of Massachusetts is a house that sees lives come and go and is the heart of this beautiful sprawling novel.

• Gathering Mist

  Mizushima, Margaret

  Add Gathering Mist to your for later shelf

  In the rainy woods of the Pacific Northwest, a boy has disappeared. The Timber Creek K-9 mysteries by former Coloradan Mizushima are always crowd pleasers.

• The Wood at Midwinter

  Clarke, Susanna

  Add The Wood at Midwinter to your for later shelf

  A slender tale of magic and myth.

• Girl in the Creek

  Wagner, Wendy N.

  Add Girl in the Creek to your for later shelf

  What could make the deep, dark woods scarier? Possibly a sentient fungus.

• Bear With Me Now

  Shepard, Katie

  Add Bear With Me Now to your for later shelf

  No better way of meeting a guy than saving him from a bear attack.

• Into the Midnight Wood

  a Novel

  McCollum, Alexandra

  Add Into the Midnight Wood to your for later shelf

  Two damaged and very different souls navigate the supernatural threats of the Midnight Wood while surviving the more mundane problems of an aggressively bad family.

• The Arbornaut

  a Life Discovering the Eighth Continent in the Trees Above Us

  Lowman, Margaret

  Add The Arbornaut to your for later shelf

  Towering above us is the eighth continent, an entire ecosystem that lives in the branches of the trees. One woman has explored as much of this continent as she can. This is her story.

• Humboldt Cut

  a Redwood Gothic

  Mick, Allison

  Add Humboldt Cut to your for later shelf

  What if the trees want revenge?

• Sorcery and Small Magics

  Doocy, Maiga

  Add Sorcery and Small Magics to your for later shelf

  A cozy slow-burn fantasy that has been described as Ghibli-esque.

• Barkskins

  a Novel

  Proulx, Annie

  Add Barkskins to your for later shelf

  Proulx mines her inner Michener with this saga of a forest that seemed limitless and the foresters who felled it.