REACH

A boy struggling with his blended family discovers a tree with the power to transform his stepbrother.

Twelve-year-old Denver feels unmoored by his 8-year-old stepbrother Harlan, who constantly breaks things and demands attention. When Denver meets Spiro, an ancient ponderosa pine with magical abilities, he accepts Spiro’s offer to temporarily transform Harlan into a tree—only to discover that everyone, including his parents, has forgotten Harlan’s very existence. Denver finds an ally in Mae, a local girl with synesthesia who perceives people through color halos and creates unusual ice cream flavors. As Denver works to reverse the transformation, he learns that Spiro became isolated from the forest’s root network after surviving a devastating fire, paralleling Denver’s own emotional disconnect from his changing family. The forest setting provides rich sensory details, and Mae’s unique perspective adds depth to the magical elements. The metaphor connecting tree root networks to human relationships occasionally feels heavy-handed, however, with characters explicitly drawing comparisons that readers might prefer to discover themselves. Denver’s character growth from resentment to acceptance feels authentic, though his transformation happens somewhat rapidly. For the most part, physical descriptors are minimal.

An exploration of family bonds that reaches for profound themes but doesn’t always trust readers to grasp them independently.