Wishtree

by Katherine Applegate

Samar has the look of someone who has seen too much. Someone who wants the world to quiet itself.

didn’t want to leave the world I loved so much. I wanted to meet next spring’s owl nestlings. I wanted to praise the new maple sapling across the street when it blushed red as sunset. I wanted my roots to journey farther, my branches to reach higher.

Opossums name themselves after things they fear.

But this is real life. And real life, like a good garden, is messy.