Wish Girl by Nikki Loftin
Format/Source: Hardcover/LibraryPublished: February 2015
Publisher: Razorbill
Length: 256 pages
Genre: Middle grade fiction
★★★
Peter Stone’s parents and siblings are extroverts, musicians, and yellers—and the louder they get, the less Peter talks, or even moves, until he practically fits his last name. When his family moves to the Texas Hill Country, though, Peter finds a tranquil, natural valley where he can, at last, hear himself think.
There, he meets a girl his age: Annie Blythe. Annie tells Peter she’s a “wish girl.” But Annie isn’t just any wish girl; she’s a “Make-A-Wish Girl.” And in two weeks she will begin a dangerous treatment to try and stop her cancer from spreading. Left alone, the disease will kill her. But the treatment may cause serious, lasting damage to her brain.
Annie and Peter hatch a plan to escape into the valley, which they begin to think is magical. But the pair soon discovers that the valley—and life—may have other plans for them. And sometimes wishes come true in ways they would never expect.
“Annie Blythe is dying, but she can give Peter Stone the strength to live.” Yes, that first line of the jacket copy made me do a hard eye roll. Thankfully, the story doesn’t fully play into that bad trope. Annie doesn’t help Peter because she has cancer and thus has some enlightened take on life. She helps him by being an artistic friend and showing him the beauty in nature. Annie’s cancer opens up the discussion of parents and children not communicating, of parents smothering their child – like how Peter’s parents pressure him. (Another question one might ask while reading this book is, what is the point to be made about children and decisions about medical procedures? Communication between parent and child is critical.)
I loved the description of their secret place. It does sound like a beautiful place to find some calm. I can piece together places I’ve been and come up with a perfect view like this. I wouldn’t call this book magical realism – I felt that any ‘magic’ the children experience is of the ordinary sort to be found in nature.
Ahead of us, stretching for hundreds of yards, was a wild-flower field. It was red and yellow and orange, all black-eyed Susans, firewheels, and Indian paintbrushes. I took a deep breath and smelled air thick with pollen and nectar. (40)
The next paragraphs contains spoilers for the ending.
The actions of two nasty brothers, Doug and Jake (violent, mean little boys – they are hints they grew up in a violent household, but nothing excuses their behaviour), culminate in something pretty awful. I was a little shocked. Peter describes, “Watched it hit, saw the fear and pain on her face the split second before she fell to her knees, to her face, below the water, the red of her hair growing in to a wider and longer stream of red as she bled. It looked like she was bleeding to death.” (213) This happens about 20 pages from the end. I don’t like endings that jump ahead and then have uncertainty about what happened before. The narrative follows the scene in which Annie is knocked out in the river, but then it jumps ahead and Peter doesn’t know what happened to her. On a positive note, my heart felt lighter when Peter shares the special place with his parents and they acknowledge the pressures they’ve put on him (233-34).
The Bottom Line
Wish Girl deals with complex issues of parent-child relationships and medical treatments, but be prepared for a bleak and violent climax.
Further Reading
- Author website
- Interview @ Middle Grade Mafia
- Review by Charlotte @ Charlotte’s Library (this review from 2015 is why I put the book on my TBR in the first place!)
- Review @ Common Sense Media
- Review @ Kirkus
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