Telephone of the Tree
by Alison McGhee
Intermediate    Rocky Pond/Penguin    208 pp.
5/24    9780593698457    $17.99
e-book ed.  9780593698464    $10.99

In a first-person narrative, ten-year-old Ayla relates her special connection to her best friend, Kiri, beginning when they first reached out to each other as infants. Together they develop a keen interest in trees: caring for them, learning about them, and aspiring to be more tree-like. Their neighborhood plants trees to celebrate new babies, including a birch for Ayla and a pine for Kiri. With a hint of foreshadowing, Ayla notes that trees are also planted to remember those who have died. Her loose, dreamy narrative dances around current details, but she eventually confides she misses Kiri, insisting that her friend will be back soon. Meanwhile, an old telephone appears in her birch tree. Ayla finds it magical but refuses to attempt a call, though other people who have lost loved ones begin using it as a mechanism to talk to them. Ayla divulges small incidents and observations like a trail of breadcrumbs, allowing readers to piece together what she herself cannot admit: Kiri is not coming home. Ayla’s voice as she comes to terms with what has happened, combined with the care and understanding of those supporting her while she grieves, create an intensely emotional reading experience. Interlaced throughout, the parallel world of the trees, with their mysterious methods of communicating and working together, provides a noble community model. An author’s note pays tribute to Itaru Sasakai’s phone booth in Japan, where people find comfort talking to those they have lost on an unconnected rotary phone.

From the July/August 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.