When wishes were horses

Two girls and two boys, tweens living in the same town, receive identical envelopes with the same intriguing, unsigned note: "ONE WISH AT A TIME / WHISPER IT TO ME / BE WISE // Magic? / Impossible. / But what if . . . ?" The tweens choose their wishes in different ways, depending on their personalities as well as personal circumstances. After their wishes are granted, each one deals with the consequences of their decisions. Bug discovers that he enjoys helping others attain their wishes more than dealing with the unforeseen repercussions of his magically granted wish. Seeing her parents' "ugly fights" as a threat to the family, 11-year-old Zoe makes a wish intended to avoid a crisis, but it backfires. Can her second wish undo the damage? Casey carefully words a wish intended to make her single mother reconsider her hard-line no-dog policy. Billy makes an amazing but somewhat selfish wish and an unselfish one, each involving a unicorn, and learns from both. Voigt, whose novel Dicey's Song won the Newbery Medal, tells four separate, parallel, realistic stories; each one is magical and memorable in its own way. An engaging choice for reading aloud and discussing in a classroom setting.

In this gentle, thoughtful tale, four children are unexpectedly granted two wishes each. Notice arrives in the form of an envelope containing two sheets of gray tissue paper and a note reading "ONE WISH AT A TIME. WHISPER IT TO ME. BE WISE." Bug wishes for a skateboard but soon discovers that it doesn't afford him the happiness he expected. Zoe, tired and frustrated by her parents' constant arguing and their inability to see how it affects her, wishes for an end to the "Ugly Fights." Though her wish seemingly comes true, her family continues to fall apart in other ways. Casey chafes against her hardworking mother's prickly nature and impulsively wishes for a dog she knows she won't be allowed to keep. And Billy uses his wish to summon a unicorn to be his friend. Though the entries briefly overlap, Newbery Medalist Voigt (Toaff's Way) presents each child's story as a self-contained narrative. The all-knowing narration creates distance from the reader and adds mystique to the wishes and their origins, making for a modern fairy tale that capitalizes on ambiguity and mystery. Characters are depicted on the cover with varying skin tones. Ages 8--12. (Aug.)