{"product_id":"beyond-the-leaning-trees-aric-leto-9798186878506","title":"Beyond the Leaning Trees: The Ground That Speaks","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eOne small step beyond the trees can turn safety into wilderness.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNear the end of the Ice Age, a small band of hunter-gatherers wakes to another thin, gray morning in their hidden camp hollow. Smoke from the hearths marks the place where children are counted and work finds its hands: scraping hides, cracking bones for marrow, keeping coals alive.main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRenn is old enough to carry a basket and repeat the rule he's heard all his life: \"Only to the leaning trees. Where smoke can find you.\" He means to obey-until a skinny young wolf appears at the edge of the scrap place and, with one wrong choice, pulls him beyond the birches into a world of brush, mud, cold water, and too many paths.main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs Renn struggles through dense, unfamiliar terrain-wet to the hip, foot cut, hunger waking under his ribs-his parents and kin must read the ground under rain with ruthless care. Nara holds the camp together: fire, food, children, witnesses. Daru and the other men fan out into the brush, following small signs before weather erases them. Iri, Renn's younger sister, tends the hearth and learns that keeping fire and telling the order of things is part of finding someone back.main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOver one long day and night, \u003cb\u003eBeyond the Leaning Trees: The Ground That Speaks\u003c\/b\u003e traces a quiet, tense search-and-rescue story in a prehistoric camp where: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eSmoke marks the boundary between \"home\" and \"gone.\"main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe ground \"speaks\" in bent stems, smears of mud, and faint footprints-if no one tramples the evidence.main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eFear, procedure, and love all pull at a small band's choices when a child vanishes just beyond sight.main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003eTold in fourteen short chapters from the viewpoints of Renn, Iri, their mother Nara, and tracker Daru, this novella offers: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eA richly textured but accessible look at camp life-hide work, marrow, sinew, bark, fire-without modern fantasy trappings.main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eA survival story grounded in competence and community rather than monsters or magic.main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003cp\u003eA reassuring resolution that balances correction and care: Renn is found, the camp learns, and firelight becomes a place for retelling what went wrong and how to mend it.main (8).pdf\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\u003cp\u003ePerfect for readers who enjoy \u003cb\u003ethoughtful survival stories, prehistoric settings, and \"competence under pressure\" tales\u003c\/b\u003e, this book sits comfortably between advanced middle-grade and adult literary fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eNote on the world: \u003c\/i\u003e The setting is an imagined hunter-gatherer camp near the end of the Ice Age, shaped by paleoanthropological possibility and archaeological hints but not meant as exact reconstruction or survival manual.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Aric Leto\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798186878506\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/12\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 124\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.35lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.31d","brand":"Aric Leto","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48997935939839,"sku":"9798186878506","price":6.85,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/beyond-the-leaning-trees-aric-leto-9798186878506","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}