The Wish Tree

Kristina Sigunsdotter & Signe Kjær

The Apple Oak is an oak tree so old and hollow that another tree has started growing inside it: an apple tree with small yellow apples that Lazze eats whole, cores and all. Lazze says the Apple Oak makes wishes come true, and sometimes Jussi finds treasures hidden inside it, like beautiful marbles and magnets.

In The Wish Tree, Jussi spends a lot of time thinking about secrets. Adde says he knows a secret about Betty, the girl Jussi has a crush on, but he’ll only tell it if Jussi has a secret to trade. Jussi wonders if he has a secret worth sharing, and what a secret really is. Can you make one up? Mum says that good secrets should feel like fizzy lemonade bubbling in your stomach, but what are you supposed to do when a secret feels more like a heavy stone? Maybe the Apple Oak can help him.

With warmth, sensitivity, and gentle humor, this story captures both the joys and the complications of friendship and relationships. The world of 7-year-old Jussi is a place filled with adventure, imagination, laughter, and everyday drama.

Kristina Sigunsdotter is a journalist and a writer, who was awarded the August Prize in 2020 for The Secrets of Cricket Karlsson.

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