Tree of Dreams by Laura Resau (review)

Thirteen-year-old Coco Hidden and her mother run a failing bean-to-bar chocolate shop in an increasingly expensive Colorado resort town. Coco, a chocolate connoisseur, will do anything to keep the shop; when she dreams of an Amazonian ceiba tree that promises treasure inside its roots, she is determined to use the treasure to save the business. Luckily, Coco and her former friend Leo win a trip to the Amazon; there the two repair their friendship, educate the native Huaorani people on cacao-harvesting practices, and witness the tragic deforestation of the Amazon and the effect on its people firsthand. Unfortunately, the series of coincidences that allows for these unlikely events to happen is artificial and contrived, including a painfully unrealistic scene where the children bribe an oil logger with chocolate and then (successfully) gamble to save the ceiba tree with a magic trick. The characters fall flat, Coco’s eccentricities are forced rather than quirky, and the prose is often stiff. Additionally, the conclusion, wherein Coco and her mother move to the Amazon to live among the Huaorani people, is as implausible as the rest of the story and leaves readers with the iffy narrative of white people educating indigenous communities. Readers with environmental inclinations should look to Helget’s The End of the Wild (BCCB 5/17) or others for a more compelling environmentally themed book. An author’s note includes information on Huaorani culture and deforestation in the Amazon.