wishtree (Katherine Applegate)

wishtree
Katherine Applegate
Feiwel and Friends
Fiction, CH Fantasy
****+ (Good/Great)

DESCRIPTION: For over two hundred rings, Red has watched over its neighborhood as the resident wishtree: every May 1, people come to tie wishes to its branches, on paper or ribbons or even socks and undergarments. Not that Red has any real power as an oak tree. Normally, trees don't even speak, at least not to humans. But it has its friends, the animals who live in its branches and hollows, and people... well, while Red is an incurable optimist, even it has to admit that people can be tricky and hard to understand. When a new family one from a far-off land moves into the blue house, the people become very hard to understand indeed. These aren't the first immigrants to move into Red's neighborhood, but this is the first time anyone defaced its trunk with a message: LEAVE. Red can't figure out why; the girl Samar seems like any other girl, if perhaps more quiet, and her wish is simply for a friend in this new place. With the neighborhood growing more hostile and the landlady grumbling about the tree having outgrown its place, this may be Red's last chance to ever make a wish come true - if a tree can make any difference in the world.

REVIEW: Like Applegate's other recent books, this is a deceptively simple fable, tackling a tricky subject with heart and nuance without talking down to kids or lecturing. Here, with the unusual narrator Red, she offers a tree's-eye-view of prejudice, fear, and history. This is not the first time Red's neighborhood has had trouble accepting newcomers, though the ugly overtones of modern hate unsettle even the tree. Indeed, even amongst the animals, neighborhoods are often fraught with squabbles and misunderstandings and petty feuds. That doesn't mean happy endings are impossible, just that they're more complicated than most storybooks like to tell us. Red's efforts to make one wish come true, with help from its animal friends, are vaguely reminiscent of the gorilla Ivan's struggles in Applegate's The One and Only Ivan; both face challenges because of who (or what) they are, and must find unique ways to communicate with a species that, for all its tendency to talk incessantly, has a very difficult time actually listening. By turns silly, serious, and even sad, wishtree is an excellent tale for our troubled times, a reminder that we've been here before - but that history is no guarantee of a happy ending in the here and now if nobody will stand up for what is right.

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