This post is sponsored by Claudia Mills. The review and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal views.
MY REVIEW
The Last Apple Tree doesn’t waste a second. From the first scene, readers can expect to be pulled straight into Sonnet’s world of grief, change, and unanswered questions. This middle-grade mystery unfolds through three narrators—Sonnet, Zeke, and the last apple tree standing in the orchard.
Twelve-year-old Sonnet’s world has just collapsed. Her Nana is gone, her mom has uprooted her and her little sister, and now they’re moving clear across the country to live with Grandpa. The orchard she remembers has been torn away—every tree but one. A gnarled, stubborn survivor, standing alone. Watching.
Then there’s Zeke, the new kid at public school, stuck between his strict vegan family and his own relentless curiosity. Annoying as he may be, he chooses Sonnet’s grandpa for a class project and begins digging up questions that were better left buried. The answers unravel a long-hidden family tragedy, and when disaster strikes, Sonnet and Zeke are forced to set aside their differences and work together—while the orchard’s last tree whispers its own haunting tale.
I found myself pausing at the tree’s verses. The apple tree is a narrator in the book, speaking in poems and bearing witness to memory and loss in Sonnet’s family. I thought it was a clever and innovative choice by Claudia Mills, and it gave the story a haunting depth.
I highly recommend The Last Apple Tree. Once you know what the tree knows, you can’t unknow it—and that’s what makes this story stick with you. I couldn’t put it down, and when I reached the last page, I wished there were more. If you love middle-grade stories that mix mystery, heart, and just the right touch of the uncanny, this one’s a must-read.
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 Language and a book from her wonderful chapter book series.
The Last Apple Tree: Book GiveawayABOUT 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
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.
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| Monday, September 22, 2025The Children’s Book ReviewBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Tuesday, September 23, 2025@nissa_the.bookwormBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Wednesday, September 24, 2025The Children’s Book ReviewAuthor Interview with Claudia Mills |
| Thursday, September 25, 2025The Starlit PathBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Friday, September 26, 2025icefairy’s Treasure ChestBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Monday, September 29, 2025Deliciously SavvyBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Tuesday, September 30, 2025Q&As with Deborah KalbAuthor Interview with Claudia Mills |
| Wednesday, October 1, 2025The Children’s Book ReviewBook List Featuring The Last Apple Tree |
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| Thursday, October 9, 2025The Fairview ReviewBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Friday, October 10, 2025Un Viaje en LibroBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Monday, October 13, 2025Life Is What It’s CalledAuthor Interview with Claudia Mills |
| Tuesday, October 14, 2025Froggy Read TeachBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Wednesday, October 15, 2025Spring Falls ChronicleBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Thursday, October 16, 2025A Blue Box Full of BooksBook Review of The Last Apple Tree |
| Monday, October 20, 2025Literary RamblesGuest Post about The Last Apple Tree |
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