Barry D. Johnson

The Treewallers Barry D. Johnson

Barry Johnson's first book, The Treewallers, is a delightful adventure for children from eight to one hundred. This story rekindles the wonder of childhood for older readers, and introduces younger readers to a plausible fantasy set in the vanishing forests of the Pacific Northwest: Even now, America's temperate rain forests are misty, magical places, jungle like, with thick vines interwoven through leafy overhead canopies little changed through millenniums. Before the stone age, tiny creatures called treewallers sought refuge among the massive forests. Over many centuries a small, intelligent gathering of these creatures evolved to form a symbiotic interdependence with the trees, learning the ultra low frequency language by which these living giants communicate world wide. The treewallers were once known to early Native Americans. But as the land was cleared and farmed and towns spread, they shrank deeper into the forests, avoiding human scrutiny. Natural linguists, special waller 'teachers' had learned the human language from settler 'sprouts' (children) whose tales of tiny creatures were dismissed as childhood fantasies. The wallers remained hidden for sixteen more long decades, until today.