Stranger in the Woods by Geof Johnson

Devastated by the death of his father, Zach Webster’s life gets worse when his mother moves him away from his friends in the big city to Whitmer, a tiny town tucked in the farthest corner of western North Carolina. They settle into the home of his late great-great uncle, an inventor whose secretive laboratory is still in the basement, hidden behind a locked steel door, the key lost somewhere in the old, Victorian house. With little to do for entertainment in the dying town, Zach and his new friends — twin boys and their younger sister — turn to exploring the nearby national forest, where they meet a strange recluse, an enormous man with fantastic, almost supernatural abilities. Amazing things happen when they’re with this giant, and together they become entangled in a bizarre mystery that will forever change their lives and those of everyone around them. Stranger in the Woods is a fantasy novel for young adults.