The Big Wish by Brandon Robshaw (Chicken House for
Scholastic)
PB
RRP $15.99
ISBN
978-1-908435-89-7
Reviewed by Jenny Heslop
When Sam’s wish for a million wishes
comes true he thinks all his problems will be solved. But it’s not quite that
simple. Sam is an intelligent kid who knows all about side effects - when he
wishes to be a giant he’s careful to add that his clothes need to grow too and
when he wishes for zero gravity in his room he wishes for only him, not his
furniture, to be affected. But even taking this into account things don’t
always go to plan.
At first wishing is fun. He helps out
his friends and family, closes school for a day, even sorts out the school
bully. But then he begins to realise something. What do you give a kid who has
it all? Sam soon learns that when you can just wish for something, when it
takes no effort at all, life can become pretty boring and meaningless. So Sam
starts to go global. But the bigger the wish is, the more complicated the
results are. How can things go so wrong
when he is only trying to help out the world!
This is an entertaining and interesting
story. It is the ultimate ‘what-if’ scenario which I’m sure most children have
run though in their heads. And although it is resolved well for Sam, it leaves
plenty of scope for every reader to explore further.
I found it surprising too. It didn’t go
in the direction I thought it would which was very refreshing. It was fun and
logical and as down to earth as a story about a boy with a millions wishes
could be.
Sam was a great character. The story was
written in first person, from his perspective, and while Sam came across as
solid and real, the others – his family, friend Evan and bully Scorpus – where
not as well built and were more cartoonish. But this worked really well within
the context of the story. With Sam manipulating events, all other people in the
book actually felt like chess pieces being moved around a board and this
interesting effect emphasised Sam’s dilemma.
The
Big Wish is a fun and imaginative story for 8-12
year olds. It will make them think and wonder, what if...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Buzz Words Books would love to hear what you think.