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Summary
Summary
An oak tree and a crow help their neighbors embrace their differences in this beautiful, nuanced, New York Times -bestselling middle-grade novel from Newbery Medalist author Katherine Applegate.
Trees can't tell jokes, but they can certainly tell stories. . . .
Red is an oak tree who is many rings old. Red is the neighborhood "wishtree"--people write their wishes on pieces of cloth and tie them to Red's branches. Along with a crow named Bongo and other animals who seek refuge in Red's hollows, this wishtree watches over the neighborhood.
You might say Red has seen it all.
Until a new family moves in. Not everyone is welcoming, and Red's experience as a wishtree is more important than ever.
Funny, deep, warm, and nuanced, this is Katherine Applegate at her very best--writing from the heart, and from a completely unexpected point of view.
This book has Common Core connections.
Author Notes
Katherine Applegate was born in Michigan on July 19, 1956. She writes science fiction, young adult romances, and pop-up books. She is the author of the Making Waves, Making Out, and Roscoe Riley Rules series. She writes the Animorphs, Everworld, and Remnants series under the pen name K. A. Applegate. She also writes under the pen names of C. Archer, Catherine Kendall and Elizabeth Benning. She has received numerous awards including a Golden Duck Award (Eleanor Cameron Award for Middle Grades) for The Message in 1997, the SCBWI 2008 Golden Kite Award for Best Fiction and the Bank Street 2008 Josette Frank Award for Home of the Brave, and the 2013 Newbery Medal and the Rebecca Caudill Young Readers' Book Award (Illinois) for The One and Only Ivan.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (6)
Horn Book Review
Applegates contemplative novel on the theme of tradition and the necessity for change is narrated by Red, a 216-year-old oak tree that serves as a communitys wishtree. Every year on the first day of May, people come from all over town to adorn me with scraps of paper, bits of fabric, snippets of yarn, and the occasional gym sock. Each offering represents a dream, a desire, a longing. When an ugly act of Islamophobia (and vandalism of Red) threatens the neighborhood idyll, Red, along with crow buddy Bongo, rallies support--both animal and human--for newcomer Samars family. Kind Samar, in turn, helps Red, whos facing the hatchet. Interspersed chapters provide the backstory of a nineteenth-century foundling and give historical resonance to the theme of community prejudice and acceptance. Its a stretch to have a protagonist with no actual voice or physical action, but Applegate pulls it off with good-natured aplomb. Intriguing botanical facts are dotted throughout the story (Red is monoecious, having both male and female flowers); how various species name themselves is a resilient running joke. Bongos touch of cynicism balances the wise elders tendency toward pontificating, and Applegate boldly does an end-run around the fact that Red doesnt speak to humans. Short chapters and a clear, unadorned writing style invite reading aloud. sarah ellis (c) Copyright 2017. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-8-The wishtree, Red, has been around for more than 200 hundred years and has seen and heard many things in their time, as people have been coming to tie wishes to their branches for years now. They are home to several different animal families and are visited often by their best friend, Bongo the crow. There's a lot of exposition in the beginning as Red explains their residents and their naming systems before the story truly begins. There's a new Muslim family in the neighborhood, and not everyone is welcoming. Red discusses the history of the community as a welcoming place for people from many different backgrounds, and connects that past in a satisfying way to the present. This is a lovely story made even lovelier by Nancy Linari's narration. She differentiates between the host of animal and human characters with ease. VERDICT Applegate fans and reluctant readers alike will be drawn to this heartfelt tale.-Elizabeth Elsbree, Krug Elementary School, Aurora, IL © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
The simplicity of Newbery Medalist Applegate's graceful novel contrasts powerfully with the prejudice it confronts. Narration comes from Red, an enormous red oak near an elementary school that also serves as a "wishtree" for the neighborhood-once a year, residents deposit wishes in Red's branches and hollows. Though trees aren't supposed to talk to humans, Red cares for them deeply, especially when a lonely girl named Samar and her Muslim family move into the neighborhood and receive a chilly, then hostile, reception: a boy carves "Leave" into Red's trunk, and the family endures taunts and other abuses. "I love people dearly," Red muses. "And yet. Two hundred and sixteen rings, and I still haven't figured them out." Applegate creates strong parallel between these threats and those that Red faces, as neighborhood matriarch Francesca contemplates cutting the tree down. As tension escalates in both the natural and human realms, Red's openhearted voice and generosity of spirit bring perspective gained over centuries of observation. It's a distinctive call for kindness, delivered by an unforgettable narrator. Art not seen by PW. Ages 8-12. Author's agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Pippin Properties. Illustrator's agent: Justin Rucker, Shannon Associates. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Just a tree, huh? Beloved author and Newbery winner Applegate returns with a moving tale starring, of all things, an oak tree. Red has stood her ground for more than a century, watching over the houses in her neighborhood and befriending the animals that call her hollows home. Each May, her branches are strung with wishes, a tradition stemming from an Irish immigrant who once lived on the property. Red sees all, including an act of hate the word leave scrawled into her trunk, aimed at new renters, a Muslim family. After so many years of keeping quiet, Red and the animals take action, aiming to connect Samar, a young Muslim girl, with her neighbor Stephen. Meanwhile, Red's owner considers cutting her down. Short chapters and a slim word count widen the audience of this beautiful tale. In less capable hands, the subject matter could come across as moralizing, but by introducing a charming cast of critters opossums, birds, squirrels, and so on Applegate adds levity, humor, and balance. Though the story's happy ending is predictable, not all is wrapped in a tidy bow. Hate and prejudice still exist in Samar and Stephen's world, as in our own. Timely, necessary, and brimming with heart.--Barnes, Jennifer Copyright 2017 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
BLACK DETROIT: A People's History of Self-Determination, by Herb Boyd. (Amistad/HarperCollins, $16.99.) Boyd weaves the lives of standout African-American figures into this history of the city, tracing its evolution from a French trading post to a symbol of decline. From the country's first black auto dealer to Michigan's first black obstetrician, characters who might have otherwise remained on history's sidelines are the heart of Boyd's history. GOODBYE, VITAMIN, by Rachel Khong. (Picador, $16.) In the wake of a breakup, Ruth - 30, adrift and heartbroken - returns home to care for her father, who is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. The novel takes the form of Ruth's diary over that year, resulting in a poignant and even darkly comic exploration of adulthood, relationships and memory. THE WRITTEN WORLD: The Power of Stories to Shape People, History, and Civilization, by Martin Puchner. (Random House, $20.) Puchner, an English professor at Harvard, makes the case for literature's all-importance to societies and the shape of humanity's history. His research has taken him to every continent, in the search for sacred and foundational texts, and spans centuries, from Mesopotamia to Cervantes to Harry Potter. SEE WHAT I HAVE DONE, by Sarah Schmidt. (Grove, $16.) Schmidt revisits the unsolved Fall River murders at the center of Lizzie Borden's life: In Massachusetts in 1892, Lizzie's father and stepmother were hacked to death. Schmidt imagines the lead-up to the grisly crime, and Lizzie's possible madness. Our reviewer, Patrick McGrath, called the novel "a lurid and original work of horror," which evokes "the disintegrating character of this sweltering, unhygienic and claustrophobic household of locked doors and repressed emotions." HUNGER: A Memoir of (My) Body, by Roxane Gay. (Harper Perennial, $16.99.) Reflecting on her life through the lens of her body, Gay engages with questions about desire, nourishment and protection. As Carina Chocano wrote here, the memoir reads like Gay's "victorious, if not frictionless, journey back to herself, back into her body, from the splitting off of trauma. Is the responsibility for her body really hers alone?" THE MISFORTUNE OF MARION PALM, by Emily Culliton (Vintage, $15.95.) In this debut novel, a Brooklyn mother has embezzled a modest amount from her children's private school. When it faces an audit, she leaves her family behind and goes on the lam. As she tries to carve out a new place in the world, Marion turns out to be a delightful antiheroine and defies expectation at every turn.
Kirkus Review
Generations of human and animal families grow and change, seen from the point of view of the red oak Wishing Tree that shelters them all. Most trees are introverts at heart. So says Red, who is over 200 years old and should know. Not to mention that they have complicated relationships with humans. But this tree also has perspective on its animal friends and people who live within its purviewnot just witnessing, but ultimately telling the tales of young people coming to this country alone or with family. An Irish woman named Maeve is the first, and a young 10-year-old Muslim girl named Samar is the most recent. Red becomes the repository for generations of wishes; this includes both observing Samar's longing wish and sporting the hurtful word that another young person carves into their bark as a protest to Samar's family's presence. (Red is monoecious, they explain, with both male and female flowers.) Newbery medalist Applegate succeeds at interweaving an immigrant story with an animated natural world and having it all make sense. As Red observes, animals compete for resources just as humans do, and nature is not always pretty or fair or kind. This swiftly moving yet contemplative read is great for early middle grade, reluctant or tentative readers, or precocious younger students. A deceptively simple, tender tale in which respect, resilience, and hope triumph. (Fantasy. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
