Available for Pre-order early 2027, the true stories from the Wishing Tree will be revealed!

Preview from the author:

For over twenty-five years, families have been coming to our home in Tucson, Arizona to make a wish on what has become known as the Wishing Tree. It's a sixty-foot Aleppo Pine in our Winterhaven neighborhood — unremarkable as trees go, except for one thing: it draws thousands of visitors, each with a story to tell.

It all started in the year 2000 as a seventh-grade science fair project. Our twelve-year-old daughter, Liz, did not agree with news reports claiming society was becoming materialistic and self-centered. She believed people were inherently good — and she wanted to prove it. Living in Winterhaven, which hosts a beloved annual Festival of Lights each December, she saw an opportunity. She set out a stapler, pens, and slips of paper beneath the tree with a simple handwritten sign: "Make a Wish."

By the end of that first night, all one hundred slips were gone. By the end of the two-week festival, the tree held 2,775 wishes. Liz's hypothesis was confirmed: the majority of wishes were non-materialistic, and most people wished for others rather than themselves.

What began as a simple science experiment became a Tucson landmark and a lasting tribute to human kindness.

Today, the Wishing Tree attracts over 32,000 wishes each December, with nearly 400,000 wishes collected over the decades. The wishes we read year after year are overwhelmingly hopeful, generous, and deeply human — a powerful reminder of what we all share. They are a testament to humanity's capacity for hope, and the reason the tradition lives on.

The Wishing Tree Book Coming in 2027 Pre-order early 2027!

Harper One, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishing