A boy and girl find themselves in a town/city with beautiful windows. The residents ask them to go on a quest to find a type of tree so that they can help the town get rid of ghost/monsters that are only afraid of that certain kind of tree. All the trees around the town/city had been cut down for fuel to make glass windows etc. Only one quirky resident had a small piece of wood from that kind of tree so he was the only one who could “fight” off the ghosts/monsters by touching them with the wood. I think he wore a cape and a yellow/orange outfit… not definite though.  The monsters were formless so I’m not sure if they were called “ghosts.” I forgot why the ghosts/monsters were so troublesome, and when they came out, but there were more than just one of them.

The Children agree to go look for the trees, not sure if one of the children is a resident, and not sure how the protagonist found the town/city. At one point, the children encounter a wizard who squeezes the boy’s hand/foot turning them into gold or some kind of metal.  At another point, they reach a mountain range, but the mountains move like waves so if they sleep on the bottom, they wake at the peak. So at first they were very disheartened as they tried to cross the mountains by scrambling to reach the peaks before getting tired.

I don’t remember anymore plot points because the teacher didn’t finish the book. So I don’t know how it ends. It took her a few sittings (3-4?) to get through the plot points above, so I guess it’s quite a thick book.

I don’t quite remember the design of the book either, but I think it was hard back, with some watercolor drawings? I can’t remember if it was a picture book or a more text-based book because the teacher was the one reading it. I don’t think there was a drawing for every scene though.