The middle-grade debut of star picture-book author and illustrator Danielle Daniel
Adventurous, trail-blazing Wolf lives in a northern mining town and spends her days exploring the mountains and wilderness with her three best friends Penny, Ann and Brandi. The girlsâ secret refuge is their tree-house hideaway, Birchwood, Wolfâs favourite place on earth. When her beloved grandmother tells her that she is the great-granddaughter of a tree talker, Wolf knows that she is destined to protect the birch trees and wildlife that surround her.
But Wolfâs mother doesnât understand this connection at all. Not only is she reluctant to engage with their familyâs Indigenous roots, she seems suspiciously on the wrong side of the environmental protection efforts in their hometown. To make matters worse, sheâs just started dating an annoying new boyfriend named Roger, whose motivesâand construction companyâseem equally suspect.
As summer arrives, so do bigger problems. Wolf and her friends discover orange plastic bands wrapped around the trees near their cherished hangout spot, and their once stable friendship seems on the verge of unravelling. Birchwood has given them so muchâcan they even stay together long enough to save this special place?
With gorgeous yet understated language, Danielle Daniel beautifully captures an urgent and aching time in a young personâs life. To read this astonishing middle-grade debut is to have your heart broken and then tenderly mended.