The second story in The Woodland Explorers Club series, Shyla’s Wood Wide Web, is all about the invisible connections that make the natural world so extraordinary.

At forest school, Shyla and her friends are learning about fungi — those mysterious mushrooms that pop up after rain and quietly hold the forest together. When Shyla inherits her grandmother’s old binoculars, she discovers something remarkable: a circle of mushrooms growing on the forest floor, known as a pixie ring.

Pixie rings are real formations that grow when the underground threads of a fungus — called mycelium — spread outward in a circle. As the fungus grows, new mushrooms appear at the edge, leaving behind a perfect ring. Long ago, people believed these circles were places where fairies danced at night, which is why they’re sometimes called fairy rings or pixie rings.

In the story, Shyla’s binoculars help her see something even more magical. Beneath the forest floor lies the Wood Wide Web — an enormous underground network of roots and fungi that allows trees to share water, nutrients, and even warnings with each other. It’s nature’s own communication system, and it really exists!

When Shyla realises just how connected everything in Willow Wish Woods truly is, she’s determined to protect it. With the help of her friends (and a few mischievous woodland creatures), she sets out to spread the message that even the tiniest mushrooms can make a huge difference.