FREE DOWNLOAD OF A CHILDREN'S BOOK

The Secret Wood

By S.G. Overton

Imagine a world that is never the same from one day to the next ...

Peter meets Harriet and Jackson Crow.

The Secret Wood

Peter Burroughs is unexpectedly transported through the magic of an old picture book into The Wood.

It is a place where a child can dance on the clouds, brave a tremendous flood, or climb a mountain tall enough to touch the sky.

It is a place of loyal companions: a handful of eccentric woodland creatures and a mischievous elf-girl.

And it is a place that will test Peter's courage, and the meaning of true friendship.

Webster rescues Harriet.

Chapter One

"The World Inside The Picture Book"

8-year-old Peter hopes to escape from a rainy summer day by looking through an old picture book. Instead he is drawn into a magical wood bursting with exciting adventures.

Chapter Two

"The Search For A Home"

Peter's new friends try to find a suitable place for him to live, and he discovers that The Wood has a strange magic: it is never the same two days in a row!

Chapter Three

"To Find Another World"

Peter and his friends search for the way back to Peter's home, but The Wood seems to be playing tricks on them.

Chapter Four

"The Wood has a Visitor"

Peter awakens from a dream about his uncle’s puppy only to learn that a frightening creature has suddenly appeared through the ‘doorway’ from the other worlds, and is scaring the helpless animals.

Chapter Five

"Hide and Seek"

A game of Hide and Seek turns serious when Léolin finds herself in terrible danger.

Chapter Six

"The Ceiling Over The World"

A cloud so thick they can walk on it, traps the friends high in the sky, with no way to get back down.

Chapter Seven

"A Little Bit Of Rain"

Peter and his friends need all of their courage and cleverness when a gigantic flood covers the entire Wood.

Chapter Eight

"Treasure Hunt"

Peter stumbles onto a trail of clues leading to pirate treasure!

Chapter Nine

"To Touch the Sky"

When a giant mountain springs up in the Wood, the friends can’t resist climbing it, especially since it just might reach to the Moon!

Chapter Ten

"There Comes a Time of Sadness"

Peter feels the need to visit each of his friends and his favourite places in the Wood, as if something sad is about to happen.

What did you think?

Subscribe to our news feed RSS Icon to get the latest updates. Or listen to our podcast RSS Icon with iTunes or with another program.

Please feel free to contact the author with your thoughts about The Secret Wood.

These files are copyright S.G. Overton, © 2006. They are licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Creative Commons License
Léolin falls down a hole.

Author's Note

The Secret Wood is a deliberate throwback to an earlier time in children's literature, the era of A.A. Milne, P.L. Travers, and Lewis Carroll. It is a story for parents to read to their children and for children who love to have stories read to them.

Its characters and their adventures would appeal to eight or nine-year-olds and younger, but the level of language might be beyond the ability of the youngest to read alone. Encouraging children to read the printed word for themselves is a duty and a gift, but an adult reading to a child is a special delight all its own.

I offer this book simply to encourage parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles to take a child aside and read to them. It's a bonding experience that seems all too rare these days. And if you perform a quick Google search on the benefits or reading to children you'll find plenty of expert opinion that confirms it's one of the best things anyone can do for a child.

As a father of four, I loved reading these stories to my own children, and I believe they shared that love.

S.G. Overton

The contents of this page are copyright S.G. Overton © 2006.

Illustrations are copyright Eric Overton © 2006, and are licensed under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

All rights reserved, except where noted.

Valid XHTML Validate CSS Level Triple-A conformance icon, W3C-WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0