Nice to have another children's literature theme. Must be the 5th this year...I didn't understand the response to Riversk's question about 4,35 : I have ENROOT, but don't see how the wordplay works.
Having been out all day and out all day tomorrow - expected to be plugging away on Monday. So surprised how quickly it all fell into place this evening - Can't decide whether I'm happy about that.....
One of the easiest this year. I Googled just one word I identified as likely in an unclued entry along with the term “song lyric” after completing less than half the grid and it was all over. A bit disappointing after recent tough challenges.
Although it felt easy there were some word that were new to me so by no meas a waste of time.
I guess most had the same experience. Googled later than you - Two word meaning of title +lyric + a couple of guessed words and my 3 unsolved more or less filled themselves in....(Had to re-google again for 'tree guardian'.....