This is when Red and Bongo decide it’s time to take action and kindle a friendship between Samar and Stephen, the boy who lives next door. After a young man carves the word “LEAVE” into Red’s trunk with a screwdriver, Samar’s parents think about moving away. This is not an easy wish, as Samar’s family is Muslim and they are not welcomed by everyone in the neighborhood. One night, she ties her own wish to Red’s branch she wishes for a friend. Red is also a wishtree, and on the first of May each year, people from the community leave their wishes on him.ġ0-year-old Samar, whose family recently moved in, is quiet and gentle, and she often visits Red at night, sitting under the moonlight until the baby animals come to sit with her.

His best friend, Bongo, is a crow, and a variety of critters, including opossums, skunks, raccoons, and owls, live in and around Red.

Wishtree is the story of Red, a 216-year-old Northern Red Oak living in a diverse suburban neighborhood. The girls may or may not have had cereal for dinner that night so I could keep reading instead of cooking them a real meal. I read it to them the next day as soon as they got home from school. I read it straight through one evening after my daughters were in bed. When I learned that PJ Our Way had selected Wishtree as well, I decided to check it out. Why would a Jewish day school select a book about a talking tree? When I first saw Wishtree by Katherine Applegate on my daughters’ summer reading list, I thought it was an odd choice.

The wish tree applegate