Under the Radar: The Green Sky Trilogy

Books: The Green Sky Trilogy: Below the Root, And All Between, Until the Celebration
Author: Zilpha Keatley Snyder
Pages: 242, 224, 224 (2004 reissue editions)
Age Range: 10 and up

Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky trilogy depicts a world in which people live up in the branches of trees, beneath a green, leaf-filtered sky. Gravity is lighter in Green Sky than on Earth, and people are able to wear silken panels attached to wrists and ankles (called Shubas) that allow them to glide gently down between branches. The residents of Green Sky are descendants of flight from Earth, one that took place as the home planet ran into irrecoverable trouble. Green Sky residents are more evolved than citizens of Earth, shunning violence and anger, and focusing on peace and joy. They don't even have words for "kill" or "anger" -- the worst state to be in is one of "unjoyfulness", and even this is rare. The children have spiritual gifts (mind-reading, and the ability to move objects with their minds), although the Spirit gifts have been fading in recent years.

Here's an example of Ms. Snyder's poetic descriptions of Green Sky, from Below the Root:

"He stood on the narrow grundbranch, looking down hundreds of feet, through vast open spaces softly lit by filtering rays of greenish light, bordered and intersected by enormous branches, festooned with curtains of graceful Wissenvine. Shaking out the wing panels of his shuba, the long silken robe worn by all except the youngest infants, he launched himself downward into space."

Although Below the Root depicts a society that is on the surface idyllic, imperfections are evident from the early pages of the book. People are pressured to never show unhappiness or irritability. The society is very hierarchical, with the community leaders kept apart from the rabble (called Kindar), living in nicer homes, and idolized. Certain locations within the community are forbidden (such as the fields where fruit is harvested). People are warned never to so much as glance at the forest floor, in fear of a race of monsters that dwells "below the root".

The Root is the root of the sacred Wissenvine, a natural plant that was adapted through the Spirit gifts of early Green Sky residents. The root forms a steel-like network along the forest floor, trapping the monsters (called Pash-shan) below. The upper parts of the Wissenvine give rise to useful vines that harden when cut (allowing construction of furniture), beautiful flowers, and Berries that cause a dreamy, happy state when consumed. The Root, and the Vine, affect all life in Green Sky. However, there are unhappy rumors that the Root may be withering...

Below the Root begins when 13-year-old Raamo learns that he has been Chosen to become one of the Ol-Zhaan, the spiritual leaders of the community. Only two new Ol-Zhaan are chosen, out of all seven cities across Green Sky, and Raamo is quite surprised to be one of them. He's an indifferent student, with poor memorization skills, and a dreamy manner. His co-Chosen One, a girl named Genaa, seems a much more understandable choice. Soon, however, Raamo learns that he has been selected because of his greater-than-average Spirit skills. He discovers that, contrary to what most of the Kindar believe, the Ol-Zhaan have also been losing their Spirit skills. They've chosen Raamo in a desperate bid to help slow the withering of the Vine, and maintain the status quo.

Soon another young Ol-Zhaan, Neric, two years older than Raamo, seeks his help in uncovering a terrible secret. The secret is protected by a clandestine group of the most senior Ol-Zhaan. Discovering it puts Raamo and Neric, and all of Green Sky, in grave danger. Below the Root is a gripping, fast-paced tale, one that tackles serious issues, but uses the fantasy setting to keep things from being too disturbing.

In order not to give away the secret here, and spoil the series for readers, I'm going to refrain from any detailed discussion of the second and third books in the trilogy, though I will make some general comments. I thought that the second book dragged a bit. And All Between starts out by repeating some of the events of the second half of Below the Root, though from a different character's perspective, and it doesn't really get interesting until mid-way through. Until the Celebration is darker than the first two books, but ultimately redemptive.

The language in this series, filled with made-up terms, is engaging. In a precursor to the later work of J. K. Rowling, Ms. Snyder uses words derived from other languages, to lend an exotic flavor to her fantasy community. Pensing (connecting with other people's minds) is derived from the French verb penser, to think. A bread-like fruit is called pan (the French word for bread is pain). A monkey-like house-pet is called a sima (from simian), and what is apparently a rabbit is called a lapan (another French word). The series also features nids (living hammocks woven of the Vine), kiniporting (moving things with one's mind), and grunds (tree trunks), all words that sound appropriate to what they describe. Some of the names of characters are also entertaining. The pompous novice-master for the young Ol-Zhaan is called Regle (regal?). A young sycophant is called Salaat (salaam, abasement?).

The characters is the Green Sky trilogy are solidly drawn, and consistent between the books. One of my favorite passages from And All Between describes Raamo's father:

"Never one to waste an opportunity for spoken communication, Valdo had, at that moment, great reason to find words of appropriate quality and quantity, and he was more than equal to the occasion. As the words of her father rolled grandly on, Pomma's mind turned again to what might be happening in the nid-chamber".

One thing that I found Interesting on re-reading this series is that although the Green Sky trilogy is a middle grade series, it has several PG-13 elements. There are thinly veiled references to sex (called "love relationships"), contraception ("Youth Wafers" that people eat to "produce temporary sterility" while living in youth halls), drugs ("Wissen-Berries", a mild drug, and "pavo-berries", a hallucinogenic), and even drug trafficking.

There's a bit of a free love vibe going on in Green Sky (the books were published between 1975 and 1978). People live in co-ed youth halls between the ages of 15 and 25, and are encouraged to have multiple relationships, before finally settling down with a bond-partner. The Ol-Zhaan never settle down with bond-partners, though they do have "relationships" among themselves. The references to Berries, which teachers encourage students to eat, to make them more complacent and obedient, made me think of today's Ritalin and the like. The use of gentle fantasy names to describe these aspects of Green Sky life may keep younger kids from really noticing them - I certainly don't remember being aware of any of this when reading the books as a child. But adult readers will certainly stop and take notice.

Other themes are more directly addressed, particularly the question of whether or not violence is an inherent part of human nature, and whether or not it is acceptable to turn to violence if ones own life, or someone else's life, is threatened. There are also veiled questions about segregation, and whether or not separate but equal makes sense for different populations. I was surprised, actually, on re-reading this series for the first time in many years, by how substantive it is. I had remembered it more as a nice fantasy, where people glide around among the trees. And while that aspect is certainly part of the joy of the series, larger issues such as civil rights are also central to the story.

One important and annoying note about the reissue editions: the very last page of the third book was missing from my copy. Fortunately, I had an older edition, and I was able to read the last page there. Otherwise, I would have been very frustrated. It's possible that this has been fixed in other printings, but a word of warning is advised.

On re-reading the Green Sky trilogy for the first time in many years, I was struck how deep these books are, and by how they seem to foreshadow a number of later titles (The Giver and The City of Ember/The People of Sparks come most immediately to mind). Zilpha Keatley Snyder may have started out (quotation from her online autobiography) revisiting "a game that involved crossing a grove of oak trees by climbing from tree to tree, because something incredibly dangerous lived "below the root"", but she's given us much, much more in this series. 

Publisher: Backinprint.com (reissue editions)
Publication Date: 1975-1978 (original titles), November 2005 (reissue editions)
Source of Book: Purchased all three from Amazon

© 2009 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Sara]

I read these so long ago, as a teenager, and loved them. But I'd forgotten about the "youth wafers!" How funny, and me being Catholic (then) and all, I wonder if I connected this to the Sunday wafers. All I remember is being completely drawn into the world of these books. I remember the feeling of being both Above and Below the Root quite clearly. Thanks for bringing this all back to me.

[Susan]

Hey, Jen. Reading along, I can see how the series foreshadowed The Giver and similar novels. Very interesting. Thanks!

Um. Pan is, in fact, Spanish for bread. And pensar means think in Spanish.

[sara z.]

I do actually remember the dark undertones of these books-something all ZKS books had for me. I remember the "drug" use and how the berries were used to to escape and keep the "unjoyfulness" from turning into outright sadness or rebellion... I haven't re-read these in a long time. Must!

[Kelly]

I've NEVER read these, and I was a huge Snyder fan. Hmmm...now I'm intrigued.

[TadMack]

Heh. Youth wafers.

I need to read this series.

[a. fortis]

These sound very intriguing! I hadn't read this trilogy, but I will now.

[Becky]

I'll have to see if I can find these. They sound very good. If they're anything like The Giver or The City of Ember, I'm sure I'll LOVE them.

[Jen Robinson]

Thanks for the positive comments, everyone! I've been traveling, and couldn't reply until now (and probably no one is going to check back at this point anyway). But yes, it's an interesting series, and I recommend it. And you can all be sure to note the "youth wafers".

I think you will like them, Becky. You can definitely see the seeds of both later series.

[Allronix]

These were and still are my all time favorite books. I discovered them through the video game that acts as a 4th installment.

Yes, as a kid, you don't notice a lot of the more disturbing stuff. As an adult, you read these and shudder frequently.

Most of Snyder's lexicon van be traced to either Latin or German. "Kindar" seems a corruption of "Kinder," German for "child." "Grunspreke" literally means "green-speak"

One of the other lingering questions Snyder presented was the idea of keeping dangerous knowledge from the masses in the story of the schism between Nesshom and Wissen. Nesshom and his followers wanted the Kindar to know the darker aspects of their origin and Wissen agrued to keep them innocent. Wissen "won" the argument. (And the book heavily implies foul play was involved).

I half-wonder if George Lucas ever read these, as the Jedi of the prequel trilogy seemed to have encountered the Kindar's plight. After centuries of purging the Dark Side from themselves and tightly regulating their social order from infancy to make the concept almost unthinkable, they do too good a job and end up crippling themselves. The Force (like the Spirit and the Vine) was dying, and the social order crumbled. Green Sky indeed was fortunate to have the humble Raamo instead of the destructive Anakin.

[Jen Robinson]

Thanks for stopping by to offer such informed comments, Allronix. These books are among my favorites, too. When I was younger I re-read them all the time. I could still tell you exactly which shelf they were on at the public library (my school library must not have had them).

The idea that these books could have helped to inspire George Lucas is fascinating.

[Christina in MA]

Jen, I remembered these books from my childhood--they made a huge impression on me and I remember exactly where they were on the shelves in the children's section--but I could never remember the names of the books or the author. Thanks for filling in the blanks for me--now I can pass them along to my kids.

[Jen Robinson]

Christina, this comment makes my day! Thanks so much for letting me know.
I'm thrilled to have re-connected a childhood fan (and hopefully helped
create new fans) of this series. And I know exactly what you mean about
remembering where the books were on the shelves of the children's section. I
have one book like that that I adored but can only vaguely remember. I know
exactly where it was ... I know that the author's last name was a "c" name,
but everything else is too vague. Anyway, I hope you and your kids enjoy the
Green Sky books!!