Greenwild

Diana “Daisy” Thistledown is the protagonist of Greenwild: The World Behind the Door. Eleven-year-old Daisy has spent her life traveling around the world with her mother, Leila, a political journalist who covers issues of climate change. While Daisy has enjoyed these experiences and is very close to Leila, she regrets the fact that she has never truly had a permanent home, and she is also disheartened by her limited opportunities to make and sustain solid friendships.

Daisy’s primary goal is to rescue her mother, who goes missing during an investigation in the Amazon rainforest. Daisy’s quest brings her to the magically hidden land of the Greenwild, where she discovers that she has magical powers to shape and influence plants. Initially, Daisy struggles to access these latent powers and begins to doubt that she will ever be able to make a home in the Greenwild. However, she eventually accesses her prodigiously strong green magic when she seeks to defend her newfound friends and home during moments of crisis.

Daisy initially holds the status of an outsider in Mallowmarsh, and her own ignorance of this magical world serves as a narrative device that allows the author to explain her world-building in greater detail.