The Forests of Silence

The Forests of Silence is a fantasy novel written by Australian author Emily Rodda, and is the first book in the eight-volume Deltora Quest series, which itself is the first series in a collective series of the same name. It was first published in 2000 by Scholastic and was awarded the "Notable Series in Children's Book of the Year Awards 2001: Younger Readers". The novel follows a teenage boy named Lief as he and his companions search the deadly Forests of Silence for the magical Topaz gem, one of the seven missing gems from the belt of Deltora.