Autumn Street by Lois Lowry

There were things to be afraid of in the woods at the end of Autumn Street. But the year she went to live in her grandfather's big house- when her father went off to fight in World War II- Elizabeth couldn't put a name to those dark, shadowy fears. She was grateful for the reassurance of Tatie's strong, enveloping brown arms which held when she needed comforting, and she relished her friendship with Tatie's grandson, feisty and streetwise Charles, who called he dumb old Elizabeth but didn't mean it. Together the two lonely children tried to interpret for each other an adult world which was always puzzling and often cruel. Together, finally, on a day when snow obscured everything but terror, they left that world behind them and entered the world that was waiting in the woods.