Uprooted

Uprooted is a fantasy novel based on Polish folklore. Agnieszka lives in a village in a valley bordered by the Wood, a malevolent magical forest. Every ten years the local wizard, known as the Dragon, takes one teenage girl as payment for protecting the valley.

Everyone expects him to choose Agnieszka’s beautiful friend Kasia; instead he picks the clumsy Agnieszka, having sensed her latent magical ability. In his tower she begins to learn spells, finds his methods unnatural and discovers a more intuitive magic of her own. Together they face the Wood as it tries to take over the land.