a middle grade novel for ages 9-13
I speak for the trees
by julia edwards
If the trees are AT war,
then so am I
“When you know that trees
experience pain
and have memories
and that tree parents
live together with their children,
then you can no longer
just chop them down...”
STEEPED IN MAGIC REALISM, I SPEAK FOR THE TREES IS A BIRTH-OF-AN-ACTIVIST STORY ABOUT A 13-YEAR-OLD GIRL WHO IS IN A LIFE-OR-DEATH BATTLE TO SAVE HER FAMILY, THEIR LAND, AND THE WHOLE FREAKING PLANET!
“I want you to panic.
I want you to feel
the fear I feel every day.
And then I want you to act…
I want you to act
as if our house is on fire.
Because it is.”
THE STORY
13-year-old Phoenix Reising is embarrassed by her name, her hippie mom, and her eco-depressed sister. It doesn’t help that her tree-scientist dad disappeared without a trace nine months ago.
But things get a whole lot weirder when she finally “finds” him. She can't see him or touch him, but she “hears” him through the tree roots: “The trees are getting angry...”
Enter: the Paving King of Pitts, who shows up with a chainsaw and a plan to turn their forest into an amusement park. The lives of every tree—and her father—are on the line. She can't speak for them yet, but she knows one thing for certain: If the trees are at war, then so is she.
“My name is Phoenix Reising.
I’m thirteen years old
and I live in Pitts, Massachusetts.
They are trying to cut down
this five-hundred-year-old white pine
so they can build
an amusement park in the forest.
I’m sitting in the tree
and I’m not getting down
until they stop.
Please send help!”
“Had I really made those roots move…
with my mind?
How was that even possible?
And why had the Wood Wide Web listened to me?
I felt something powerful coursing through me.
It was the pulse of the planet.
Thrumming.
From my fingers to my toes.
And I wondered:
If I could make the roots do what I wanted,
what else could I do?
Could I speak Tree?
Could I…make things grow?”
–Phoenix Reising, Age 13