Greenwild

The Greenwild is the titular world of plant-based magic, and it serves as the main setting, where most of the action in the novel takes place. Thomson spends a great deal of time describing the splendor of the Greenwild, which features fantastical versions of real-world plants and is populated by magical Botanists who use their powers to aid plant growth and help the natural world to thrive. Most of the infrastructure of the Botanists’ community is plant-based. Artemis, for example, lives in an enormous treehouse, and people also travel on the water via enormous lily pads that serve as boats.

Various Botanists regularly remind Daisy that the natural bounty of the Greenwild is not necessarily restricted to the Greenwild. This aspect of the novel suggests that the line between the mundane world and the magical world is very thin. In this sense, the Greenwild becomes a personification of nature itself, and Thomson uses this aspect of the novel to advocate for the importance of protecting the environment. The Greenwild is thus presented as something aspirational: A marvelous world that could be made real if people were to focus on protecting nature rather than destroying it in order to make money. The narrative ultimately serves as a call to action for middle-grade readers, encouraging them to practice environmental stewardship so that the real world can become as magically pristine as the Greenwild is portrayed to be.