A Watcher in the Woods is a 1976 mystery novel by Florence Engel Randall that was published by Atheneum Books.

It was re-released by Scholastic Book Services in 1980 with a new title, The Watcher in the Woods (ISBN 0-590-31334-7) to tie-in with Walt Disney Studios' film adaptation with this new, slightly altered name.

Her family moved from Ohio to a small town in Massachusetts, where her father has accepted a teaching position at a local college.

Moving in, Jan felt the watcher still, but the only concrete evidence was a rash of broken mirrors-all with a large X across the middle.

Not until the family went on a picnic near the old pond on the property did more clues come, and then they came as puzzles to be solved, as mysteries to be understood, as incredible facts to be absorbed, and as desperate need begging for prompt action.

Mrs. David Aylwood (Anne Sinclair): the unwilling seller of the house, she has the ability to "see" the Watcher.

Mrs. Thayer: the real estate agent, she is aware that there is something unusual about the Aylwood place but she tries to dismiss the stories as local gossip.

Fifty years before, her parents had taken her to a ceremonial coming-of-age ritual on their home planet in which she was to view earth, but Karen, during her walk, was too near the portal when it opened and the two changed places.

The Watcher opts to stay until the next opening of the portal in order for Mrs. Aylwood to use this "going-forth" to reunite with Karen in the alien's home world.

Kirkus Reviews gave the book a negative review, criticizing the protagonist of the novel, and saying: "The watcher has something to do with time warps and immortality and, ultimately of course, God, but Jan's responses are so sophomorically wooden that one longs for the comparatively forthcoming poltergeist of The Almost Year (1971).

"[2] Jane Resh Thomas, writing in The New York Times said, "Her novel's conclusion seems abrupt and incomplete, as if she wrote herself into a corner and escaped by main force.

Melissa Joan Hart directed a television film remake with Anjelica Huston as Mrs. Aylwood.