Here's all I can remember :-
- It was a sci-fi story but had a horror-taste to it.
- It was about aliens from some other planet, who tried to invade Earth.
- The aliens could not (or probably would not) try and control children but instead tried to control adult minds.
- They tried to do so as they expected the children to obey the adults.
- At the end (?) some children take a young alien as hostage and somehow realize that the aliens are afraid of wood.
- When they realize that the aliens are afraid of wood, they are in a tunnel, trying to escape the aliens.
- It was in book form, but I cannot remember if it was a part of an anthology.
- This was in the childrens' section of the library and I read it about five years ago.
- At one point, they are in a treehouse and there are many adults queuing up in a neat line outside and the aliens use their powers over the adults to try and convince the children to come out.
