Alder Madigan and his widowed mother live quiet life in their "small but neat" home next to a cherished, great big walnut tree. On the first day his new neighbors move in, they cut down the great big walnut tree to make room to add an extension to their home -- so you could say things get off to a rocky start. On the first day of school, Alder feels abandoned by his best friend who has become interested in cross-country club over the summer, but still wants nothing to do with the new girl next door -- Oak Carson whose mother cut down the walnut tree. Before long, however, Oak and Alder find themselves drawn together in a series of wonderful coincidences like when they are paired for a class project, adopt sibling kittens, and are briefly whisked to another dimension inhabited by the human-sized opossum Mort (usually an opossum-sized taxidermy animal in Alder's room) thanks to feline teleportation abilities. Oak and Alder slowly become friends as their lives become increasingly, magically, mysteriously entwined.
Despite the inter-dimensional travel, this is mostly a quiet, realistic, and introspective novel about the friendship between two children as they navigate feelings of loneliness. Alternating chapters tell the story from Alder and Oak's points of view which makes both characters extra-relatable. This wholly unique and wonderfully low-key novel realistically depicts both Oak and Alder while making a compelling case for the power of imagination.
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