Telephone of the Tree

Inspired by Itaru Sasaki's phone booth in Japan, where people can symbolically call deceased loved ones, McGhee lays bare the powerful emotions entangled with loss while demonstrating the strength found in community.

Raw and sad but lit with occasional glints of humor and ending, as it should, on a rising note. 

McGhee (Dear Brother) injects a speculative twist to this tender tale about death and grief. Most of the trees on 10-year-old Ayla's block were "planted to celebrate new babies." Ayla and her best friend Kiri always reveled in their connections to their trees--a river birch and white pine, respectively--caring for them and spending time nestled within their branches, encouraging each other to "dream big." When Kiri suddenly disappears, Ayla convinces herself that Kiri will be home for their 11th birthday in three weeks. Then an old-fashioned telephone mysteriously appears in Ayla's tree, and her astute grandfather suggests that "maybe it's there just in case you want to call someone," an idea that Ayla rejects, though it seems to bring comfort to others in the community: five-year-old neighbor Gentleman calls his deceased gecko, and a grieving husband phones his late wife. As Kiri's birthday draws near, Ayla grows tired of resisting the shattering truth behind their disappearance. Employing spare, sensory language, McGhee explores the painful negative space created by loss and the devastation of a friendship cut short, as well as the healing found in moving forward while remembering that "there's more... so much more." Characters are described as having varying skin tones. Ages 8-12. Agent: Sara Crowe, Sara Crowe Literary. (May)

Copyright 2024 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

★ Rather than trot in a therapist or some other mouthpiece for wise counseling, the author gives her protagonist subtler (and more believably effective) help reaching that insight—most notably parents who give her space rather than unwanted advice, and her grandfather's old telephone. Readers feeling Ayla's profound sense of loss will be relieved when she finds a way to live with it. Raw and sad but lit with occasional glints of humor and ending, as it should, on a rising note. —Kirkus, starred review

★ The reveal that the phone was placed by Ayla's grandpa who used it to "call" his wife after she passed is just one beautiful details in a story that focuses on generational healing rather than generational trauma. While more mature readers may quickly realize that Kiri has died, the novel's hybrid of lyrically written plot fragments and stream of consciousness serve to poetically reveal the facts as Ayla becomes ready to process them. —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, starred review