Take your pick today. A young adult novel about grieving, an Indian love story, and a short story collection set from the Twin Cities to Lake Superior. “Telephone of the Tree”: by Alison McGhee (Rocky Pond Books, $17.
99) Maybe the telephone of the tree is a gift of the tree, to/the humans who need it. — from “Telephone of the Tree” Alison McGhee, winner of four Minnesota Book Awards, writes novels for adults and middle-grade readers as well as picture books for children. “ Telephone of the Tree ,” told in page-long prose poems, is a middle-grade reader’s story about a girl coping with grief.
Ayla is 10 and counting down the days to when her best friend Kiri returns. Kiri went away but Ayla is sure she will be home for her 11th birthday party. Ayla misses her friend so much she collects all her “Kiri things” in the house, including the trick candles they use every year on their birthday cakes.
She misses her friend the most when she looks down the block lined with trees planted over three generations to honor deceased neighbors and welcome babies. Ayla’s is a river birch and Kiri’s a white pine. The girls share a love for these trees and spend hours perched in their branches.
They are so attuned to the trees they want to become them. As Ayla waits impatiently for Kiri to come back, she ignores strange looks she gets from classmates who she insults when they offer to walk to school with her. She hates to see the patient concern in her parents’ eyes.
Sh.
