"Tree Girl" by Ben Mikaelsen

In the book Tree Girl Gabriela and her sister Alicia escape a brutal attack from the guerrilla soldiers into the trees. The soldiers killed everyone in there village and the next and the next until they traveled through a field to a new town they thought would be safe until a troop of soldiers came in started beating people to death slaughtering some and hanging them while being burned over a fire, during all this Gabriela was in a tree in the center of town her sister in the woods. after the soldiers left from killing and burning everything to the ground she got down and looked for Alicia in the woods but didn't find her.Gabriela went on for miles and miles before she found a refuge camp, but the guards told her it was full and the next camp would be several miles away. Gabriela walked for days loosing hope every moment that her sister might still be living and that she would survive. In every moment she also thought of herself as a coward hiding in a tree instead of getting what every one else got,to dye.she promised herself she would never climb a tree again in her life. Soon she finally found the camp and lived with two older women.She also made a school to teach children all over camp how to read and write. Somewhere in all this she found her sister traveling in camp with a bunch of others. The second she saw Alicia her hope went as high as it could for survival. Gabriela thought they should leave the camp and head for Mexico ,but she decided she had made family and friends at the camp and a new way for the children to learn.Alicia had not spoken since the night of the attack on her village but Gabriela and Alicia went to a tree just outside of camp and climbed into it, Gabriela explained to Alicia how being a tree girl is not being cowardly it is being strong and honest. That very moment Alicia asked to go higher into the tree.
Read this book if you would like to now how a desperate army for a win in war attacks villages because they think there working with the other side and against them. Many incessant people were killed when all they wanted was peace and nothing to do with war.