Ester Dobiášová

The book Wishtree, photo © Ester Dobiášová

“Trees can’t tell jokes, but they can certainly tell stories…”

A red oak as a storyteller. An old wise tree named Red with his own personality, memories, friends, jokes, and stories. It’s unexpected, but awesome point of view.

“I’m not just a tree, by the way. I’m home. A community.” (p. 23)

To feel like a tree, to think like a tree, to communicate like a tree.

“For a tree, communication is just as complicated and miraculous as it is for humans. In a mysterious dance of sunlight and sugar, water and wind and soil, we build invisible bridges to connect with the world.” (p. 21)

Red is a great bond between civilization and nature, between present and history. He shows us a dense network of relationships beyond the human world. Everyone is equal across various species in spite of differences. Crows, racoons, human children, opossums, squirrels, oaks, lindens…

“We disagree sometimes, but this is the way of all friends, no matter their species.” (p. 14)

Of course the tree has his owner. Gray-haired Francesca without a touch of sentiment she said. It should be a problem when a new family moves in a neighbourhood. Not everyone is welcoming a little girl Samara and her parents and one day someone uses the tree like a tool for his hate. Poor family, poor tree.

“’I can’t control everything in life, Bongo,’ I said gently. ,And if I could, what fun would that be?’” (p. 113)

From the book Wishtree, photo © Ester Dobiášová

The book Wishtree has a lot of important messages not only for children: to remain hopeful despite circumstances. To live full life with a space for to be surprised. To maintain friendships and good relationships. To actively help anyone in need and it doesn’t matter if it is a tree, an animal, or a little girl. Katherina Applegate showed us that children are not helpless and her book should encourage them to help someone in a similar situation even though the world is a tough place. “Doesn’t matter if you’re a bunny or lizard or a kid,” said a female crow Bongo, Red’s best friend.

“Samar looked over at her parents. ,I don’t know if this will change anything,’ she said.Stephen looked over at his parents.

,Me either.’

,Thank you, thought,’ Samar said. ,For trying.’” (p. 190)

From the book Wishtree, photo © Ester Dobiášová

I would like to end my review with a quote. It’s about tree-hollows: “Hollows are proof that something bad can become something good with enough time and care and hope.” (p. 25) Don’t you understand? Read the book, it’s awesome and planetarianistic. You can find also it in Czech translation, it’s called “Strom naděje”. And imagine it, Wishtree has his own website: www.wishtreebook.com. Nice!

Quotes from the book: APPLEGATE, Katherine a Charles SANTOSO. Wishtree. New York: Feiwel and Friends, 2017. ISBN 9781250043221.

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Tuto knihu jsme rozebírali v předmětu Planetarianism Now (ohromně zajímavý koncept), knihu jsem četla anglicky a anglicky o ní tedy i píšu. Českou recenzi najdete ZDE.