Check Out My Newest Review For The Last Apple Tree By Author Claudia Mills PLUS Enter To Win A Giveaway! #TheLastAppleTree
This post is sponsored by Claudia Mills. The review and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal views.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Written by Claudia Mills
Ages: 9-12 | 264 Pages
Publisher: Holiday House (2025) | ISBN: 978-0823461882
Publisher’s Book Summary: 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.
PURCHASE LINK
Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Bookshop.org
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claudia Mills is the author of over 60 books for young readers, including most recently the verse novel The Lost Language and the middle-grade novel The Last Apple Tree, as well as two chapter-book series: Franklin School Friends and After-School Superstars. Her books have been named Notable Books of the Year by the American Library Association and Best Books of the Year by the Bank Street College of Education; they have been translated into half a dozen languages. Claudia is also a professor emerita of philosophy at the University of Colorado and a faculty member in the graduate programs in children’s literature at Hollins University. She has written all her books in her faithful hour-a-day system while drinking Swiss Miss hot chocolate.
For more information, check out claudiamillsauthor.com.
MY REVIEW
I loved reading The Last Apple Tree by author Claudia Mills. It’s a tender, emotionally rich novel that interweaves grief, memory, environmental themes, and family reconciliation all-in-one and it is the perfect book for middle schoolers and beyond. This book is told via multiple perspectives…. including that of a lone apple tree and in it the author invites readers into the delicate terrain of what it means to remember, to forgive, and to hope. This is a book perfect for uncovering roots and remembering loss and it is beautifully written so that you do not want to put it down. I just wanted to find out what would happen next and that is a beautiful thing and what I look for in a new good book to read.
In The Last Apple Tree….. twelve-year-old Sonnet, her younger sister Villanelle, and their mother relocate to Indiana after the death of Sonnet’s grandmother, they move in with Gramps, a man now haunted by loss and fading memories. The once-vast family orchard is gone, replaced by housing developments, leaving only one apple tree standing: the titular “last” tree.
At Sonnet’s new middle school, a class assignment requires students to interview an elder about their past. Both Sonnet and her neighbor Zeke independently pick Gramps as their interview subject…..much to Sonnet’s fury. Zeke, who is adjusting to public school after years of homeschooling by his activist father, sees the project as a way to connect. Sonnet sees it as an intrusion.
As Sonnet and Zeke clash over interview questions and boundaries, secrets from the past emerge. The novel’s dual perspective between Sonnet and Zeke provide readers with an insight into their internal struggles, their misunderstandings, and their capacity for growth. Interspersed with those human voices are short, poetic narrations from the apple tree itself….bearing silent witness to the family’s history and the land’s changes.
The Last Apple Tree is a quietly powerful story and by giving voice to characters navigating grief, silence, and the burden of untold stories, Claudia Mills offers readers a moving lesson: sometimes, the hardest questions are worth asking, and the act of remembering can itself be an act of care. The last tree may appear fragile, but in its enduring presence, it beacons hope and to me that is a beautiful message and lesson!
TOUR SCHEDULE
Monday, September 22, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
Author Interview with Claudia Mills
Thursday, September 25, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Friday, September 26, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Monday, September 29, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Tuesday, September 30, 2025
Author Interview with Claudia Mills
Wednesday, October 1, 2025
Book List Featuring The Last Apple Tree
Thursday, October 2, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Friday, October 3, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Monday, October 6, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Friday, October 10, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Monday, October 13, 2025
Author Interview with Claudia Mills
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Wednesday, October 15, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Thursday, October 16, 2025
Book Review of The Last Apple Tree
Monday, October 20, 2025
Guest Post about The Last Apple Tree
NOW TO THE GIVEAWAY!
Enter for a chance to win one ten signed paperback copies of The Last Apple Tree by Claudia Mills. But wait, there’s more! One lucky grand prize winner will get a special one-hour Zoom author visit with Claudia herself, plus signed copies of The Lost Languageand a book from her wonderful chapter book series.
The Last Apple Tree: Book Giveaway
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