It is apple season. Everyone is so into pumpkin spice, but the truth is I love apples more! An apple tree can be so many things to different people. Today I get to share a middle grade novel with you about a family, friends, growing up, and memories and it all revolves around an old apple tree. The book is The Last Apple Tree by Claudia Mills. At the end of this post there is a giveaway!
About the Book:
The Last Apple Tree Written by Claudia Mills
Ages: 9-12 | 264 Pages | Publisher: Holiday House (2025) | ISBN: 978-0823461882
Publisher’s Book Summary: Twelve-year-old Sonnet’s family has just moved across the country to live with her grandfather after her nana dies. Gramps’s once-impressive apple orchard has been razed for a housing development, with only one heirloom tree left. Sonnet doesn’t want to think about how Gramps and his tree are both growing old—she just wants everything to be okay.
Sonnet is not okay with her neighbor, Zeke, a boy her age who gets on her bad side and stays there when he tries to choose her grandpa to interview for an oral history assignment. Zeke irks Sonnet with his prying questions, bringing out the sad side of Gramps she’d rather not see. Meanwhile, Sonnet joins the Green Club at school and without talking to Zeke about it, she asks his activist father to speak at the Arbor Day assembly—a collision of worlds that Zeke wanted more than anything to avoid.
But when the interviews uncover a buried tragedy that concerns Sonnet’s mother, and an emergency forces Sonnet and Zeke to cooperate again, Sonnet learns not just to accept Zeke as he is, but also that sometimes forgetting isn’t the solution—even when remembering seems harder.
About the Author:
Claudia Mills is the author of over 60 books for young readers, including most recently the verse novel The Lost Language and the middle-grade novel The Last Apple Tree, as well as two chapter-book series: Franklin School Friends and After-School Superstars. Her books have been named Notable Books of the Year by the American Library Association and Best Books of the Year by the Bank Street College of Education; they have been translated into half a dozen languages. Claudia is also a professor emerita of philosophy at the University of Colorado and a faculty member in the graduate programs in children’s literature at Hollins University. She has written all her books in her faithful hour-a-day system while drinking Swiss Miss hot chocolate.
For more information, check out claudiamillsauthor.com.
From Me:
I have a confession. I forgot to read the book until today. Now normally I can be a bit of a slow reader, but around 4 p.m. today I began to read this book digitally. With about an hour break for dinner, I read this book almost completely in five hours. It is so good and was so easy to just keep reading and I wanted to keep reading it! I'm not even talking skimming the book. I read the book in full detail! Well, I have one or two chapters left but got through enough and it got late enough that I needed to begin the review. With all of that said let's talk about the book!
This book shares the lives of Sonnet and Zeke. The book goes back and forth between their points of view as well as the occasional point of view of the old apple tree. Sonnet's family has moved into her grandfather's house after the death of her nana. Sonnet had only visited her grandparents once prior to her nana's death. She is trying to figure it all out and keep her family happy. She hates seeing her grandfather cry. Her younger sister is extremely imaginative and gets much of the attention--after all she is only in kindergarten. Her mother is a poet who also cleans houses for money now that they moved to Indiana. Her mother hated working 9 to 5 in Colorado because she didn't have time to write. Her grandfather calls the backyard the orchard, but he sold much of the land of his orchard so now it is only a backyard with one really old apple tree. The rest of the orchard was developed into a housing subdivision. And the house behind the backyard lives Zeke with his parents. He finally convinced his parents to let him go to public school instead of his environment crazy journalist father homeschooling him. Both Zeke and Sonnet are trying to figure out middle school and don't really have friends because of being the new kids there.
When they get assigned an oral history project where they have to interview an older person, they both choose to interview Sonnet's grandfather. Sonnet worries that Zeke will see her grandfather cry and perhaps see how her grandfather mixes up who people are. He keeps calling her mom by her nana's name. Zeke and Sonnet struggle through the book with their relationship with each other. They go from not talking to arguing to doing the interviews with each other and arguing more but somehow find a way to become friends. Their friendship as well as the oral history project help both of their families grow and let go of some of the past.
This book is so interesting. The story is unique and full of twists and turns. The oral history project brings so many changes for both Sonnet and Zeke as well as a realization of the importance of family and neighbors. Their families help each other in ways not really expected to overcome issues of the past as well as some hard memories. It is such an interesting story. Sonnet's young sister has a very different view of the world and is so creative. Her mother has her poetry. Both would be interesting things to discuss with a class as would Sonnet's art. The oral history project is perfect for any class to do after reading this book. Plus, there is the dementia that is beginning with Sonnet's grandfather that could add to the discussion. Many of us are told stories by the older people in our lives but often we do not write them down and sometimes do not pay that much attention to them. The stories truly can die with the person, so it is an important message about hearing them and writing them down. The story is realistic and will have you wanting to read what happens next. Like I said I read it in record time for me and honestly couldn't believe I got through it so quickly but also didn't want to stop reading. Kids will enjoy this story. It is full of so much that happens to many kids everyday especially in middle school. It often is worrying about what others think, making friends, finding people to eat lunch with as well as dealing with family issues and trying to find some freedom as one is getting older. I think this book is a wonderful read and would make an amazing book to read as a class because it opens so much for discussion and ways to extend the lessons.
To go with this book, download this free activity kit!
Giveaway:
