What it's all about...
BLUE: When Hiding Isn't Safe Anymore is a powerful environmental fantasy that speaks directly to today's climate-anxious generation.
Eleven-year-old Maisie-Grace LaForet has always been different—she dreams the future, reads minds, and talks to trees, especially her beloved Douglas Fir named Blue.
When her mother forces her into public school for the first time, Maisie-Grace must navigate the brutal social landscape while hiding her mystical abilities.
But when loggers threaten to destroy her forest sanctuary, she faces an impossible choice: stay silent and safe, or use her gifts to fight for the natural world she loves, even if it means being branded a freak forever.
This isn't just another coming-of-age story—it's a rallying cry for young environmental activists wrapped in beautiful, accessible prose.
Allen masterfully weaves together themes of neurodivergence, environmental activism, and the courage to speak truth to power, creating a protagonist who embodies the frustration and determination of today's youth facing climate catastrophe.
With its blend of magical realism, authentic middle-grade voice, and urgent environmental message, BLUE offers hope and empowerment to readers who feel different, overwhelmed, or called to protect the natural world.
It's Where the Crawdads Sing meets The Wild Robot with the environmental urgency of Greta Thunberg—a book that will inspire young readers to find their voice and fight for what matters most.
Discussion Questions
Teachers, parents, and readers -- download your free copy of the Blue Discussion Questions, specifically aimed at kids 8-14 years of age.
What the Critics are Saying
Exclusive Magazine
"A transformative, spiritually-hued book, I can honestly say that I read it in just two sittings, but had bed not been calling me that first night, it might have been consumed in one go. For the book is just that good. An effortless read, yet one with such powerful transformations for us to visualize that it is a wonder she managed to create this most deeply colorful world and all that exists within it in just these 216 pages.
Helping us to know our challenges, to be able to handle them accordingly, but moreover to have the courage to step forward, this generational crossover of a story weaves a most beautiful tale of the wisdom of trees, one where if we can teach ourselves to be way more attentive to the roots, the trunks, the branches, the soul of our trees, perhaps we ourselves can walk head held positively high with freshly garnered Mother Nature knowledge into an always uncertain future."
-Exclusive Magazine
Midwest Review
"Caroline Allen seems to have a natural gift for creating the kinds of stories that young readers will find to be as emotionally engaging as they are original and entertaining.
With an environmental awareness theme that is 'reader compelling' from first page to last, "Blue: When Hiding Isn't Safe Anymore" is especially and unreservedly recommended for elementary school, middle school, and community library fantasy fiction collections for young reader ages 8-14."
-Midwest Review
What Other Writers are Saying
Author of Nothing
Ever Goes on Here
Like Maisie-Grace, I grew up feeling different — dreaming with angels and having visions. “My whole life is seeing stuff without being able to say it.”
For anyone who feels other-than, Blue is a balm for heart and soul. While this is intended for middle schoolers, it’s my fervent hope that this is a crossover book that reaches an adult audience, as its characters have so much to teach us all. The tree wisdom, the wisdom of children’s hearts, is needed more than ever if we are to save our planet.
Like Maisie Grace, JAX, and Macon, today’s children are listening to this earth’s wisdom. Blue is a comforting guide to help us deal with the challenges we face as our earth continues to shift.
“I think we live in times where we have to build our part of the bridge.” With Blue, Allen has created a much-needed bridge for kids and adults alike as we walk into a challenging and unknown future.
Author of The Blackfish Prophecy
We live in remarkable times that call for fierce, powerful stories of great vision, especially for kids facing unprecedented changes. Blue offers a potent and inspiring message of truth about where we are in this world, now. And it shows us how to build bridges to the future we all know is possible ... bridges we are absolutely going to need in each and every one of our communities.
Allen has built a compelling and mystical bridge to that world and our innate, awakening wisdom: our spiritual connection to Earth and the luminous web of life. Earth is calling us with urgent dreams, and Blue offers a path for us to answer.
Book coach/Editor
This book changed the way I walk through the woods and think about trees — and helped me excavate my own preteen self, who went silent way back when.
Imagine falling asleep curled in the roots of a huge tree as it whispers to you. Allen’s writing is compelling — and she is especially good in the moments when Maisie-Grace is overwhelmed by her visions and when the old tree, Blue, speaks to her.
When Allen weaves emotion, wonder, fear, and wisdom in staccato bursts and long streams of consciousness, her language allows us to inhabit Maisie Grace’s heart and feel what it is like to be psychic in a harsh and insensitive world.
Blue is a lyrical and important book for our times, and impossible to put down. I love this book and wish I’d had it to read when I was eleven.
Author of The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women
Blue is a beautiful story of spiritual passion, danger, and transformation, culminating in a profound and surprising rebirth, as told by the gifted yet struggling Maisie-Grace.
To save her dear tree friend, Blue, Maisie learns to do somersaults with her fears, grows stronger and dares to go out on a limb to express her authentic self.
This is a story with powerful transformations and a joyful twist of hope and enduring trust in the continuity of Mother Nature.
A child of the forest myself, this book is a treasure chest of life lessons. It strengthens your trust and