About the Book
Twelve-year-old Sara has always felt a connection to the natural world she couldn't quite explain. But after a wildfire drives her family east to a grandmother she barely knows, strange things start happening. Her eyes change color. A mushroom speaks to her. And a voice from deep beneath the earth delivers a warning she can't ignore.
She’s not just a girl. She’s a force of nature.
Armed with powers she doesn't fully understand, Sara must protect Pine Island — the last undeveloped island on the East Coast — from the greedy forces closing in on it. But when she discovers that the greatest threat may come from someone she loves, saving the world starts to feel a lot more complicated.
Sara Storm: The Midnight Message is the first book in The Pinecone Pathway Series.
Read the Opening
A windswept wildfire roared and raged through the night.
Branches snapped, leaves crumbled, and bald spots appeared where saplings used to grow by the dozens. On the outskirts of the forest, a girl named Sara dreamt of exploring those very woods.
But as the fire twisted and barreled toward her home, smoke curled into her room, burning her throat. She coughed, jolted awake, and ran to the window. The raging inferno sent black smoke into the sky. One after another, houses along Crosby Lane were swallowed up by the flames until only one remained.
Her own.
…
Through the windshield, the fire raged, but it didn't advance. The wall of flames hovered, as if testing an invisible boundary, stopping right before their car. She felt her heart pounding in her chest with the realization that the fire hadn't stopped on its own.
It stopped because of her.
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The Science Behind the Story
The mycorrhizal network — the "Wood Wide Web" — is real. Trees and fungi form underground partnerships that allow forests to share nutrients, water, and warning signals across vast distances.
Sara's powers are rooted in this living system. The Pinecone Pathway is fiction. The science is not.