BookBright
ABOUT THE BOOK
NO SPOILERSRed is a 216-year-old red oak tree who serves as the neighborhood wishtree, a tradition where people tie cloth scraps and paper to her branches to make wishes each May Day. She narrates her own story, watching over the families in the two houses she shades: a blue house where a ten-year-old Muslim girl named Samar has recently moved with her immigrant parents, and a green house where a boy named Stephen lives next door. When someone carves the word "LEAVE" into Red's trunk, the act stirs up the bigotry that has shadowed Samar's family since they arrived, and the tree's owner, Francesca, announces she will have Red cut down after Wishing Day. Red decides she will not simply observe anymore: before her end comes, she wants to grant Samar's one wish, written on a pink dotted scrap of fabric and tied to Red's lowest branch, which reads "I wish for a friend."
Free Battle of the Books questions for Wishtree
SPOILERSEvery one of these has the same answer, and that is the point. In a real battle the question is read aloud with a dozen other books in play, and students have a few seconds to place it. Here is what a battle might ask about Wishtree. Use them as a quiz, a trivia round, or BOTB practice.
Where in the book they come from
- Early in the book
In what book does the narrator explain that all northern red oaks share the same name?
✓ Answer
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Red explains that every northern red oak is named Red, every sugar maple is named Sugar, and every juniper is named Juniper. In tree world, names are not needed to tell one another apart.
- First half
In what book are two calico kittens named Lewis and Clark repeatedly rescued from an oak's branches?
✓ Answer
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Francesca's two calico kittens love climbing up Red but cannot climb down. They have been rescued twice by the fire department and three times by the police in just two months.
- First half
In what book does a crow tap a boy's window and impersonate a fire engine siren to wake him up?
✓ Answer
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
When Stephen will not wake up, Bongo abandons gentle taps and performs her best fire engine siren imitation at his window. Stephen flings the window open and finds Samar's pink dotted wish waiting on the sill.
- Second half
In what book do two kids think they must be sharing the same dream when a plant speaks to them?
✓ Answer
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Stunned by Red's voice, Stephen asks Samar to pinch him to confirm he is awake. The two children try to convince each other they must somehow be dreaming at the same time.
- Second half
In what book does a kind young woman care for sick piglets, lame horses, and coughing children?
✓ Answer
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Maeve has no medical training but a gift for soothing the sick. Poor neighbors who cannot afford a doctor bring all sorts of ailing creatures to her door.
- Near the end
In what book do schoolchildren tie identical index cards reading "STAY" to a doomed old oak?
✓ Answer
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
Stephen secretly organizes his class to make identical cards as a message to Samar's family. Soon the whole school joins in, and more than a hundred kids tie cards to the branches.
