Claudia Mills -- "The Last Apple Tree"

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.

Award-winning author Claudia Mills brings enormous compassion and depth to this novel of unlikely friendship and generational memory.

_______________

*This is a free kids event, but registration is required.

*Please note: our events are held on the second floor. To request a reasonable accommodation or discuss your needs, contact [email protected].

*After registering, send an email to [email protected] if you're a Readers Guild member and you'd like to reserve a seat at this event. Seats must be reserved before 5pm on the day of the event.

• HERE

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl Street, Boulder, United States