The Great Treehouse War

“As her parents continued their argument, Winnie scooped up Buttons and headed down the hallway to her room. Neither of her parents seemed to notice that she’d left. Winnie shut the door on the bickering, thinking that perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad after all, having one day a week to herself.”

This scene characterizes Winnie’s dynamic with her parents. Their initial inability to look past their own conflict and understand Winnie’s needs defines the trajectory of their relationship arc in the narrative—establishing communication and consideration as important tools that Winnie and her parents must bring to their relationship to regain equilibrium in their family dynamic. The final sentence demonstrates how her parents’ conflict affects Winnie and foreshadows the treehouse as a place of safety and Wednesdays as her escape.

“Thinking it was a nothing-special Wednesday, Winnie decided to do the nothing-special things she normally did (which were really kind of special, after all). […] On nothing-special Wednesdays, Winnie often ended up doing the sorts of things that most kids could do any old day of the week.”

This quote answers the question Mr. Benetto’s letter poses at the beginning of the novel and develops Wednesdays as a motif representing refuge amidst the chaos of Winnie’s situation. in this quote, Wednesdays also represent how children going through divorce might feel in relation to their peers. Their reality has shifted and they may feel themselves to be living a different “normal.”

“But Wednesdays were the only days Winnie had to herself. She’d wanted to doodle in her brand-new sketchbook. She’d wanted to snuggle Buttons and fall asleep watching the stars. She had not wanted to read about swans.”

To Winnie, Wednesdays represent the freedom to manage her own needs. Winnie’s time with her parents is so disruptive to her that her needs are ignored, pointing to a larger pattern that characterizes Winnie’s dynamic with her parents. This conflict must be resolved before the relationship can undergo transformation.

“Uncle Huck was the person who’d taught Winnie about Artist Vision. Even though Uncle Huck was an architect, he had what he liked to call an ‘artistic mind,’ and he said Winnie had one, too. He claimed that the two of them shared an ability to see things in ways that most other people couldn’t. […] When Winnie turned on her Artist Vision, it was like the light shifted, just a little, and she could observe things at a new angle—better, deeper, truer.”

Graff introduces Artist Vision as a motif to establish important aspects of Winnie’s character: she’s artistic, insightful, and observant. Winnie’s description also positions Uncle Huck as a positive figure in Winnie’s life—an adult who offers her understanding and nurtures her emotional needs and passions—reinforcing The Importance of Friendship and Other Bonds of Support.

“Winnie turned her Artist Vision back on, watching Aayush. And she observed something very interesting, in the shifted light. Aayush’s mouth, squinched into a tight, straight line. His fingers, fiddling with his empty cupcake wrapper as he talked. Winnie wondered if it was really his science experiment that Aayush was upset about.”

This moment establishes Artist Vision as a tool of discernment for Winnie and foreshadows her eventual epiphany that one’s outward wants belie deeper needs. This knowledge plays a crucial role in resolving the plot’s conflicts and building motifs that support the themes of Self-Advocacy and Standing Up for One’s Needs and Navigating Parental Divorce and Complex Family Dynamics.

“Winnie went back to working on her bracelet, looking up every once in a while to observe her friends—the ‘Tulip Street Ten,’ as they liked to call themselves. Since Tulip Street Elementary was so small, each grade had only a handful of students so Winnie had moved from class to class with the exact same kids since kindergarten. And lucky for all of them, the Tulip Street Ten generally got along pretty well. […] This was the last year of the Tulip Street Ten [before they entered middle school and had different classes]. And somehow, like there was a sort of secret pact between them, Winnie could tell that they had all silently vowed to make this the best [year] they’d ever had together.”

Winnie’s description of the history she and her friends share emphasizes the strength of their bond and establishes The Importance of Friendship and Other Bonds of Support. The final sentence foreshadows the novel’s central conflict: the stand-off between the children and their parents. The name, “Tulip Street Ten” connects to the reference to the “Treehouse Ten” in one of the beginning illustrations, foreshadowing the involvement of Winnie’s friends in the treehouse stand-off.

“[Winnie’s dad] hadn’t taken in one word she’d said about school. About any of it. He was perfectly happy with his peach cobbler. He’d said the celebration was for Winnie, but it wasn’t, not an ounce of it.”

Winnie’s dad’s lack of engagement with his daughter as Winnie tries to tell him about her failing grades establishes their dynamic and provides one of the first moments in which Winnie realizes the extent of her parents’ ignorance of her needs, developing the conflict that will drive the novel’s exploration of children Navigating Parental Divorce and Complex Family Dynamics. Winnie’s dad is oblivious to Winnie’s distress and her problems, instead prioritizing his competition with Winnie’s mom.

“And after [Winnie locked herself in the treehouse], Winnie didn’t come down for a long, long time.”

This moment at the end of Part 1 launches the central premise and conflict in the novel. It is Winnie’s first act of standing up to her parents, developing the self-advocacy theme.

“And [Winnie’s parents’ obsession with evenness], that made Winnie mad. ‘No!’ Winnie shouted. She squeezed Buttons tighter. She could tell he was mad, too. ‘That’s the problem!’ This mess had all started, Winnie realized, when her parents had begun insisting that everything be exactly even between them, all the time.”

This is the first instance in the novel in which Winnie explicitly names her emotions (rather than expressing them via interpreting Buttons’s reactions), the first moment in which she defies her parents and directly communicates her feelings about the situation, advancing her character arc, and developing the theme of Self-Advocacy and Standing Up for One’s Needs.

“Everyone paid lots of attention to Buttons, giving him more snuggles and smooches than he’d had in a long time. And when he wanted to curl up and be alone, they let him do that, too.”

Because Winnie usually projects her own emotions on Buttons, the way that her friends treat him provides an analogy for how Winnie feels they treat her. This moment illustrates both Buttons’s role in the narrative and the role of Winnie’s friends in supporting her, developing the theme of The Importance of Friendship and Other Bonds of Support. The Treehouse Ten are appreciative of and attentive to Winnie, while also respecting her privacy, both things that Winnie does not receive from her parents.

“Until that moment, Winnie had never thought of herself as either a rabble-rouser or a hero. She’d just been a girl in a treehouse.”

The media’s reaction to the Treehouse Ten’s stand-off places Winnie at the center between two polarized sides. While kids around the globe feel that the Treehouse Ten are heroes standing up for their rights, parents feel they are trouble-makers. Winnie feels caught in the middle of the two conflicting perspectives despite the fact that she herself identifies with neither, paralleling her relationship with her parents and (the later situation that develops between the Treehouse Ten).

“On Wednesday afternoon, twelve full days after she’d first climbed into her treehouse and refused to come down, Winnie turned her Artist Vision on her friends again, observing them in the shifted light. Their bleary eyes. Their mumble-hissing arguments about everything from dirty dishes to Go Fish. The way everyone’s games and songs and stories were seeming just a little less fun, a little more tiring.”

Graff evokes the Artist Vision motif to reveal new insights about the shifting dynamic among the Treehouse Ten as the siege wears on. Winnie’s observations and conclusions about what she sees develop the conflict that drives Part 2 as tensions rise among the Treehouse Ten.

“But Winnie thought both her friends were a little wrong, too. Ignoring the other person and acting like theirs was the only solution—that was no way to get any of them anywhere.”

Winnie’s thoughts about the argument between Squizzy and Lyle parallel her thoughts about her parents’ conflict. The rising tension among the Treehouse Ten gives Winnie a chance to confront her fears about conflict between people she loves, preparing her to confront the conflict with her parents at the end of the novel.

“Watching Squizzy and Lyle glare at each other across the treehouse made Winnie’s stomach churn inside her like a washing machine that had gone off balance. And Winnie knew from too much experience that when she got that off-balance churning in her stomach, she couldn’t count on the two people who’d started it to make it stop.”

Winnie’s reaction to her friends’ hostility toward each other explicitly prompts comparison to the situation with Winnie’s parents. Graff describes a realistic physiological reaction to conflict to convey the helplessness and abandonment that Winnie feels, reinforcing the parallel between the two situations in Winnie’s life.

“But just before she landed on the roof of Uncle Huck’s house, the twelve carefully handwritten pages of Winnie’s not-quite-finished local history report dislodged themselves from the back band of her blue polka-dot pajamas. And all Winnie could do was watch as her weeks of hard work scattered in the wind, rushing off in all directions.”

The image of Winnie’s history report torn away from her and lost in the wind reflects the helplessness and misery that Winnie feels in the novel’s central conflict. The stand-off hasn’t worked out the way that she wanted it to, and she feels like she is watching her friend group—the friendships she is so secure in—fall apart, without any way to fix it. This moment signals a shift to a more serious tone, preparing the narrative to move into heavier emotional territory.

“Sometimes it helps to turn your Artist Vision on yourself, too, you know.”

Uncle Huck’s words foreshadow Winnie’s crucial self-reflection toward the end of the novel. Artist Vision is the tool by which Winnie has important realizations that drive her toward the confrontations that resolve the major conflicts in the plot and support the novel’s thematic exploration of Self-Advocacy and Navigating Parental Divorce and Complex Family Dynamics. Once Winnie is finally able to reflect on her own emotions, she realizes important things about her own needs that drive the novel to its climax.

“Her friends, Winnie realized as she watched and doodled, had come to the treehouse with very clear demands about what they wanted. But in the shifted light, Winnie began to see that perhaps what they really wanted was something else entirely.”

Winnie’s reflections suggest the resolution to several conflicts in the narrative: the one presently dividing the Treehouse Ten, the one with her parents, and the internal conflict within Winnie herself. After probing the outward wants of the Treehouse Ten to reveal the more important things they need from their families, Winnie is able to turn those questions on herself and understand that what she needs from her parents is more than just an end to their competitive behavior.

“It calmed the churning in [Winnie’s] stomach, just a little, to know that she was helping.”

The churning-washing-machine feeling is Winnie’s physiological reaction to conflict. The fact that it is calmed by helping the Treehouse Ten resolve issues with their own parents suggests a solution for Winnie’s family conflict too. Because these reunions were achieved via communication and compromise with each Treehouse Ten member asserting their needs, it suggests that these are also the keys to regaining equilibrium in Winnie’s family dynamic.

“Because now that she was all alone in the treehouse, there was no one left to turn her Artist Vision on but herself. And Winnie wasn’t entirely happy with what she was observing. Her restless tossing and turning. The persistent churning of her stomach. Winnie should’ve been happy to have another regular Wednesday in her treehouse. But she wasn’t.”

Graff uses the Artist Vision motif as a mechanism through which Winnie recognizes her own emotions, reinforcing Artist Vision’s role as a tool of discernment and insight, and providing a crucial moment in Winnie’s character arc, the plot, and the development of the self-advocacy and navigating divorce themes. Graff uses realistic physiological symptoms of stress in children dealing with high-conflict divorce, prompting the reader to connect Winnie’s distress to the effects of her parents’ conflict. Winnie realizes the depths of her unhappiness, pushing her to reflect on what she truly needs from her parents; these reflections drive the climax where she confronts and resolves these issues with her parents.

“You didn’t get us stuff we asked for, but you got us stuff we needed. That’s even better. You’re a good friend, Winnie.”

This quote from Winnie and Lyle’s walkie-talkie conversation evokes the motif of wants versus needs to suggest the resolution to Winnie’s conflict: Navigating Parental Divorce and Complex Family Dynamics. Winnie realizes she must stand up for what she needs, pointing to the narrative’s impending climax in which Winnie confronts her parents.

“Both of her parents in the treehouse together—that was the only thing Winnie had demanded when she’d climbed up into her treehouse and refused to come down. But once she’d turned her Artist Vision on herself and really examined things in the shifted light, she’d realized that what she needed was something more.”

Understanding the difference between wants and needs motivates this climactic revelation from Winnie and catalyzes the narrative’s climax. Winnie resolves her external conflict with her parents and her internal conflict over being able to effectively communicate her feelings, reinforcing the theme of Self-Advocacy and Standing Up for One’s Needs.

“And eventually, a remarkable thing happened. It was, Winnie realized, the most remarkable thing that had happened since Winnie had first climbed up into her treehouse and refused to come down. Winnie’s parents began to listen.”

The climax of the novel resolves the primary narrative conflicts and underscores the themes of navigating parental divorce and self-advocacy. It also provides Winnie’s most transformational moment and the completion of her character arc—moving from conflict-avoidant to assertive in her needs. Once Winnie’s parents finally listen, resolution takes place suggesting communication and consideration as the keys to navigating complex family dynamics.

“Winnie hadn’t used her Artist Vision in a while, but she turned it on then just for practice. She squinted her eyes, observing her parents in the shifted light. The twitch of her mom’s lip, just before her mouth morphed into a smile. The smirk in her dad’s eyes, as he watched his daughter.”

Graff uses the Arist Vision motif to illustrate the changed dynamic between Winnie and her parents at the end of the novel. Their body language demonstrates how Winnie’s parents have grown: Instead of hostility and selfishness, they now display gentle humor and attention to Winnie. Winnie’s parents have both entirely changed their attitudes, suggesting that they and Winnie have found a balanced family dynamic, pointing to the resolution of this conflict in the novel.