Writing from the point of view of a red oak was quite a stretch, and I was very worried about it. With both it’s interesting. Both The One and Only Ivan and Wishtree, about halfway through the books I decided to give up. And I still have this little piece of paper. I show it to kids when I do school visits. And it says: The question is do I give up on Ivan or not? Because I was gonna throw it out. Who was gonna read this book? It’s about a gorilla.
And there’s always that point. I think we all hit the wall when we’re writing, at some point, and you kind of — you’re filled with self-doubt. But with Wishtree, I wanted a nonhuman observer of human behavior. And I wrote Wishtree during the throes of the election. I wrote it quickly. I wrote it ferociously. But I wanted it to be for very, very young readers. I wanted a first or second grader who’s going, “Why are we “othering” entire groups of people? Why are we being so unkind to each other?”
The vitriol. The nastiness. I think of lot of us just felt so overwhelmed by it. So it was very therapeutic. And I wrote it very much thinking, “Okay, I want something a second grade teacher can read to their kids when, say, they have a new Muslim student in class. And I want them to be able to understand the story.” And, in fact, I was in Seattle, and I visited a school that had a hugely diverse population, large Muslim population.
And they had read Wishtree as a one-school read. The reason was because a Muslim mom who had been in the parking lot had been harassed by another parent. And she ran into the office devastated, upset, and one of the mom’s there happened to be reading Wishtree to her young son. And she said, you know what, you should read this book. We should all read this book. And everyone read it: the crossing guards, and the librarian and the administration.
And they had a sort of day of healing afterwards, and of course made a Wishtree, which was lovely. A lot of schools have been doing that. But that to me was such a wonderful story. It’s really heartening as an author to think that your intent actually had an effect.
You know, I think at the end of the day a lot of books for young readers are more sophisticated than an adult book you might find in the adult section of a bookstore. There are many, many kid books that I think adults should read, and would love if they would venture. So, very often, for a book like Wishtree I think the real difference will just be that the cover looks a little different. It’ll be in a different place in the bookstore.