Arlo Finch #2: In the Lake of the Moon by John August

My name is Arlo, and I'm not sure I should have tossed the rusty flashlight to the Blue Patrol. I still don't know how it could have happened, but the Long Woods is a mysterious place. I've now come to Ranger Camp for my first time, but things are strange. Wu and Indra are fighting, our patrol leader Connor is gone, I'm having strange dreams, and I've somehow gotten on Big Breezy's bad side. Indra says the trees predicted my arrival here before I was born! My Uncle Wade and others say there never was a Yellow Patrol, but I've found evidence that's not true. I know Uncle Wade was in the patrol, so why is there a mystery surrounding the group? I feel like the forest spirits want me to do something, but what?

I wish I could read this series straight through instead of waiting for new editions to be written. I enjoyed the teamwork in the first book, but this one included some discord between the main characters. Arlo experienced many events alone, and his partners were varied. Arlo and I had trouble making sense of the events and how they fit together. Everything started to clear up once Arlo and Indra took a canoe across the lake. The flashlight incident occurred in the first chapter but was put on the back burner until the second half of the book. Arlo interacted with characters, including an ornery wind spirit, but he wasn't sure if they were friends or foes. The unpredictability of the characters added some intrigue, but I missed the camaraderie in the last book. I still found the book entertaining and imaginative. The Long Woods were a mystery to the characters, and no one knew what was going on until the end. They knew there was a problem, but they didn't really understand the big conflict. Overall, I would have liked to have seen some things presented differently, but I can still recommend you give it a shot.