Author: Edward Eager
Illustrator: N.M. Bodecker (cover illustration by Quentin Blake in the copy that I read)
© Date: 1954, renewed 1982
Publisher: Odyssey/Harcourt Young Classic
Pages: 192
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: Yes, a few illustrations are sprinkled throughout
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12 years
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book: It all begins with a strange coin on a sun-warmed sidewalk.
Jane finds the coin, and because she and her siblings are having the worst, most dreadfully boring summer ever, she idly wishes something exciting would happen.
And something does: Her wish is granted.
Or not quite. Only half of her wish comes true.
It turns out the coin grants wishes—but only by half, so that you must wish for twice as much as you want.
Wishing for two times some things is a cinch, but other doubled wishes only cause twice as much trouble. What is half of twice a talking cat? Or to be half-again twice not-here? And how do you double your most heartfelt wish, the one you care about so much that it has to be perfect?
Note: This review is done from memory. I originally read this a short bit ago.
Page Pig Thoughts: This one is half as magical as I hoped it would be, but I can see how someone could get attached to it. The idea of a magical charm that gives people half of their wish is fun, and I appreciated the wishers having to wish their way out of the issues that their wishes made. Although when they wished things back twice as much, I was always a little disappointed and felt a bit like a solution was being glossed over.
Since the story is older, the writing and some of the references are older. For example, when the children wind up in the desert and see an Arab, Martha says, “How!” Mark asks, “What do you think he is, an Indian?” I think that is the most noteworthy language difference, but there were references to horse riding and other things that may not come readily to children. So this one could be a vocabulary builder or a source of frustration.
Maybe this series can be a favorite for your child, but even thought this one wasn’t a bad book, I will not likely read any more from this series.
Family Unit: Jane, Mark, Katherine, and Martha live at home with their mother. While their mother is working, Miss Bick cares for them. Their father is dead.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- The children do not always agree on what sorts of wishes should be made.
- The magical charm only grants half a wish, but no one know which part of the wish will be halved.
- Jane is upset about getting a stepfather.
- The children are not fans of Miss Bick, their caretaker.
Positive Items:
- The children find ways to work together, try to be fair, and try to stick to their agreements.
- The magical charm seems to help people find happiness.
Items of Interest:
- The children do chores at home before they can go out to play.
- Some of the wishes that the children make are on accident, particularly before they know about the charm and how it works.
- Mark accidentally wishes for his friends to come back home from camp/vacation so his summer will be more entertaining. His mother hears about all of his friends disappearing from their summer activities. Since they all got halfway home, no one knew where they were and Mark’s mother was concerned about letting him leave the house. Mark manages to wish all of them back to where they should have been.
- Mark also wished all the children to the desert where a shifty looking man kidnaps them to make money. The children didn’t have many options because they needed water, so they followed the man. Mark realized that he should be kind to his enemies, so he winds up wishing that the man gets a wife, children, and a decent job.
- The children take a day in town by themselves using their allowance money. They take a streetcar, look in shop windows, eat saltwater taffy, listen to someone play music, eat parched corn, pick ice creams for themselves at the soda shop, and pick a movie to watch. The movies do not have sound and Martha cannot read the words yet.
- When the children go back to the Middle Ages, three knights battle each other and chop the others apart with their swords. The children wind up wishing them back together, so their limbs and torsos scooted back together. Then Sir Launcelot was able to nobly battle them and kill them.
- Katherine realizes that wishes should not be taken lightly. She wishes everyone to the Middle Ages and gets mad at Sir Launcelot for not appreciating her. So she wishes herself to be a better knight than him. When she embarrasses him in a tournament and it is discovered that she is a girl, the whole kingdom hangs its head. Merlin manages to help the children out of their issues, but his magic ensures that the children will only stay in their time/location.
- The magical charm introduces the children’s mother to Mr. Smith who runs a bookstore. Their mother and Mr. Smith fall in love with each other.
- Jane is a bit bitter about her mother and Mr. Smith because she is the only one that remembers her father and is not interested in a stepfather. She wishes herself out of her family, which makes her appreciate them all the more when she comes back to being herself.
- Mr. Smith helped the children wish themselves out of some issues. Having an adult around was useful.
- The children’s mother thinks that she is going mad because things keep happening that she can’t explain, so she thinks that she is losing her mind. The children are a bit upset because that is a result of not telling her about the magic charm.
- In the end, the children’s mother marries Mr. Smith, their mother no longer has to work at the newspaper, and the magic of the charm wears out. The children then realize that they need to pass the charm on to someone else. They leave it for someone and watch the initial wish. They wanted to share about the half-ness of the magic, but realize that the child needs to discover that for herself.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- 7 books are in the Tales of Magic series