Wish Leaves

How might a children’s book inspire an art project? Wishtree by Katherine Applegate (Macmillan, 2017) sparked two community-wide collaborations—one in-person at the South Shore Charter Public School (SSCPS) in Norwell, Massachusetts, and the other virtually through the Saratoga Springs Public Library (SSPL) in Saratoga Springs, New York. Students cut out and colored leaves and wrote meaningful wishes on them.

A Meaningful Tale
In the book Wishtree, Applegate recalls the Celtic tradition of tying pieces of cloth as wishes on trees for the annual Imbolc celebration. Immigrants from Scotland, Ireland, and England carried this custom with them to their new homes. Applegate’s central characters are Red (a red oak tree), and Bongo (a clever crow).

Samar, a Muslim girl, moves into the neighborhood and is welcomed by all the animals who live in Red’s branches. It is a comfortable place for Samar, and she ties a cloth onto the tree that reads: “I wish for a friend.” When someone carves “LEAVE” into Red’s bark, the neighborhood children, helped by the animals, find a way to transform the hateful message.

Accompanied by Charles Santoso’s stunning black-and-white illustrations, Wishtree teaches the importance of friendship, diversity, tradition, and community. Catherine and Pam designed an art project based on this story as a creative and healing activity for in-person and virtual teaching.

Setting the Context
At SSCPS, K–6 students in Pam Golden’s and Dan Vasconcellos’s art classes listened as Pam and Dan displayed the book, discussed the synopsis, and shared Santosoʼs illustrations. Students watched the book trailer on YouTube (see Resource). Pam and Dan talked about acts of kindness in the book and asked students to think about their own wishes and dreams.

The SSPL program brought together fourth- to sixth-graders from six elementary schools and the middle school as part of a community-wide collaboration called Saratoga Reads, Junior!, organized by Catherine Golden, a Skidmore College English professor, and Sarah Derven, youth services librarian at SSPL. High-school and college students were leaders for two ninety-minute Zoom sessions. Everyone read the book in advance. On Zoom, students watched the book trailer and discussed the book in breakout rooms. Leaders asked the children about their wishes.

Designing the Leaves
At SSCPS, the art process began with students tracing cardboard templates of oak, birch, and maple leaves onto 8½ x 11" (21.5 x 28 cm) oaktag paper. Using black permanent markers, students drew the leaf “bones and veins” onto their cutout leaves, then added their names, the date, and their wishes. Students added color with the media of their choice, such as crayons, colored pencils, and permanent markers. Pam and Dan laminated and trimmed the finished leaves.

At SSPL, Catherine and Sarah emailed students a PDF of three leaf shapes—a red bud, an oak, and a maple. After Zoom session one, students cut out their chosen leaf shapes, wrote their messages, and decorated them with colored pencils, crayons, and markers. Students took two pictures—one of the leaf itself and a second of them holding their wish leaf—and emailed them.

Assembling the Wishtrees
At SSCPS, Pam and Dan attached the 200 laminated leaves onto clotheslines and then tied them onto the trees on the school grounds. The art installation was part of a school-wide multicultural art celebration. Students and teachers loved reading the messages and seeing the beautiful wish leaves fluttering in the wind.
At SSPL, Catherine and Sarah brainstormed how to create a virtual tree. The library’s graphic designer helped create a video from the many wishes collected. At the second Zoom session, Catherine and Sarah shared the video with participants, who felt a sense of pride to see their messages recorded.

Messages of Hope
This art activity helped students to express their feelings of fear and hope. Many students shared that they wished the pandemic would end. Students wrote about seeing friends again and keeping family members safe. While no one asked for chocolate spaghetti or a talking gerbil, like the children in the book, students wished for a pet, for all the books in the world, for a healthy planet, and for world peace. Creating their wish leaves in-person and virtually, students branched out to envision a kinder world.