Saturday, May 5, 2018

Wishtree (Katherine Applegate)



Katherine Applegate has done it again. This is a beautiful book! The narrator is a tree. The tree's neighboorhood has a "newcomer" family move into the neighborhood and someone carves the words "leave" into her trunk. The tree is resourceful and communicates with animals and other trees and they gather their resources to solve some of the friendship issues. Unfortunately, someone wants to cut down the tree, so their time is limited.

This is a great book to talk about empathy as well. What would it be like to be the family that is being threatened or to have no friends?

Activity ideas:

  • Make a big tree (on paper) and make wishes
    • one for yourself, one for someone else

Goodreads says:

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 her crow friend 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 experiences as a wishtree are more important than ever



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