SOLVED. Middle Grade/ YA Fantasy. Large Mounds in woods come alive at night, these ancient slow-moving creatures are called Warlords. Boy sneaks out of bedroom window at night, walks in the woods, and befriends creature. Battle. Read around 1970. [s]

[Readerina]

Hi, I am trying to find this book also, I hope it rings a bell for someone, thank you! It was another story I read in grade school, probably around 5th grade, it was a library book from my school at the time. It was the story of I think one child, maybe more than one, but I think just one. Probably a boy but I honestly don't remember now. The boy was a pre-teen or maybe a little younger. He would climb out his bedroom window at night and sneak off to walk in the woods behind his neighborhood. There were mounds in the woods. One night one of the mounds rose up and turned out to be a creature - a mound creature, i.e, the mound itself was a creature. It was an ancient being called a "Warlord." The boy became friends with it. Then other mound/warlords work up. I don't remember the plot, but I believe there was a battle and the child was key to resolving the battle. That's all I remember. If anyone has any suggestions as to what this was I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you!

[Kate]

How long ago did you read it -- that is, when were you in 5th grade? Was it a new book when you read it?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Readerina, are you still looking for this or did you find it?

[Readerina]

Hi, sorry I obviously have not been on this site in ages! No, unfortunately, I never found the book. I was in the 5th grade in 1970 and it was probably a new or new-ish book. It was a school library book, so I assume it was probably one those lists that school librarians receive of good books to acquire.

[Kris]

Readerina, how big are the mounds in the woods? Are they hills? What do they look like when they awake?

I added some details to the header/ topic title. Feel free to edit it.

[Readerina]

Thanks for the header change. They were big mounds compared to a small kid. So they must have been the size of like a car covered in a mound. My memory could be faulty. I don't remember remember what they looked like but I think maybe they looked like big gnomes or Tomten or creatures like that, and where hairy and either had robes that touched the ground or their bodies were attached to the ground. I could totally be wrong. I would probably make a terrible courtroom witness, lol. But basically they were ancient creatures, slow-moving, it wasn't like they were lithe fairies or some other thin, delicate creature.

[Kris]

You're welcome. Any sense of the story's time period and location/ country?

[Readerina]

I think it was meant to be contemporary to the time it was written, and I don't recall anything "foreign" about it, so it was probably just generic middle-America. The boy in the story (I am pretty sure it was a boy) lived in a house in a neighborhood of similar houses, it seemed normative to my middle-American childhood.

[Rainbowheart]

Dar Tellum: Stranger from a Distant Planet?

But it might not be old enough. Is 1973 too late?

[Readerina]

Hi, yes definitely too late. I would have been in junior high by then. I had read this in the fifth grade. But this looks fun!

[Rainbowheart]

The Giant Under the Snow?

[Readerina]

OMG!!!! This is it!!!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, super glad to help out!