Overall, Wishtree is a touching story of a community overcoming discrimination and reconnecting to the natural world: it is a guide to living in harmony, with nature and with one another.Red is a 216-year-old Northern red oak who is home to many animals. Only by overcoming these notions, by treating every person and every living being with respect, can a society grow to truly live in harmony. Part of the book’s message is that no living being is disposable. By making Red the story’s protagonist, Wishtree gives representation to a nonhuman being that is often disregarded. A home to diverse animal residents and a focal point for the human community to come together, even a single tree shows why we need nature in our lives. Red demonstrates the worth of even a single tree. If animals of completely different species can come together to help each other, why can’t we? Another theme the novel develops is that harmonious societies need to consider their connection to the environment.

They provide a model for what cooperation looks like and how superficial our differences really are. By recognizing a bigger, collective purpose, the animals are able to protect their home. In the end they stand together to protect Red from being cut down, shocking the people gathered on Wishing Day. The animal society functions well in spite of its diversity. They try to help Red grant Samar’s wish and save Red from the land owner. Part of the book’s appeal is a glimpse into the unlikely cooperation among Red’s resident animal families-owls, opossums, skunks, and raccoons. This story holds the key to creating a harmonious community that welcomes outsiders and values its connections to nature. In a radical move, the old oak shares with them the story of the first Wishing Day. Assisted by the animals who live in its branches, Red sets out to help Samar and her neighbor Stephen become friends. Samar and her family are Muslim in a town without many diverse residents. Red has decided on one last mission: fulfilling the wish of a new arrival, Samar. The woman who owns the land wants to cut it down. As the neighborhood’s resident Wishtree, Red hears the dreams of hundreds of people when, on Wishing Day each year, they tie their wishes to its branches like a new set of leaves. What would a tree say if it could talk? Red the oak tree is over a hundred years old and it has many stories to tell. Review by Gabrielle Morris and Thomas Richardson

The wish tree by katherine applegate