Author: Tyler Whitesides
Illustrator: Jessica Warrick
© Date: 2018
Publisher: HarperCollins
Pages: 325
Chapters: Yes
Illustrations: A few – most pages do not have illustrations
Publisher Recommended Age: 8-12
Bonus Activities at End of Book: No
Summary from Book: A Genie that grants all your wishes-it’s a dream come true. Want to fly? No problem. Want to turn invisible? Done. How about a lifetime supply of sandwiches? Ask and you shall receive. But there are a few catches…which twelve-year-old Ace is about to learn the hard way.
After opening a peanut butter jar and releasing a genie named Ridge, Ace discovers that the Universe has big plans for him. He’s given seven days to complete a seemingly impossible quest. And if he fails, the world will end in the most horrific (but cuddly) way imaginable-all cats and dogs will magically turn into zombies.
Luckily Ridge can help by granting Ace an unlimited number of wishes-as long as Ace is willing to accept the consequences. The bigger the wish (or the easier it makes his quest), the greater the consequence. So if Ace wants to avoid having pogo sticks for legs or all of his clothes disappear, he’ll have to be careful what he wishes for and get a little creative.
But as the consequences begin to pile up, Ace finds himself wondering if he’ll actually be able to save the world…or if he might be the one to doom it altogether.
Page Pig Thoughts: I like the idea of consequences for genie wishes. And I see where the humor is supposed to come into this book. A consequence that the main character, Ace, gets fourteen inches of toilet paper on his shoe after he walks into a bathroom is amusing. Ace having a peanut butter smudge on his face for a year, also amusing. However, the humor of the story is way overshadowed by the darkness and heaviness of the events.
I made the mistake of reading other reviews after I read this book, and I may be alone in my opinion, but I was not a fan of this book. This book had an amusing looking cover, good premise, and seemed like it would be a light/fun read, but I had to force myself to keep reading. I wanted to see how the pieces fit together in the end, which I thought would be happy, but it was not. The book ends with sad consequences and a cliff hanger. I will not read the sequel anytime soon. This book left me feeling so let down and out of sorts that I was struggling to pick a next book to read. Thankfully Page Pup came to the rescue and suggested something for me to read.
Family Unit:
- Ace, the main character, is an orphan. Three years before the start of this story, he walked into a hospital with no memories of who he was or where he came from, just an ace of hearts playing card in his pocket.
- Tina, a fellow wishmaker, only mentions a mother. Her mother is very sick and in the hospital.
- Jathon Anderthon, another wishmaker, seemingly only has his father. His father is cruel and the villain in the book.
Conflict/Social Issues:
- The three wishmakers in the story seemingly have conflicting quests. Ace’s quest is to stop a mean person from opening the Undiscovered Genie jar or all the cats and dogs in the world will turn into zombies and kill all humans. Tina’s quest is to save an ex-Wishmaker’s life or lemonade will flood the earth and kill everyone. Jathon’s quest is to help the person that he is closest to achieve their greatest desire or pianos will rain from the sky and kill everyone. The story moves along with the belief that the focal person for each wishmaker’s quest is Thackery Anderthon, until the ending reveals how the quests can be fulfilled otherwise.
- Ace feels a bit at odds with the Universe. The Universe picked him for the quest to save the world, so it sent him the genie in the peanut butter jar. He didn’t realize the choice that he was making when he opened the jar, so his journey as a wishmaker was a bit forced. He cannot fulfill his quest without using genie wishes, so he is stuck with the consequences of the Universe. Ultimately, Ace finds himself confused with the Universe that maybe wants him to fulfill his quest, but the consequences for his wishes seem overwhelming.
- Ace and Tina team up to fulfill their quests, but somehow never really get to know one another. This creates some conflicts because Ace doesn’t fully understand why Tina is making some of her choices.
Positive Items:
- Seeing the value in reading directions/warnings. Ace doesn’t understand how genies work because he didn’t read the warning label on the peanut butter jar that contained his genie. Ace was just hungry and wanted a sandwich.
- Through wishes having steep consequences, we can see the value of creativity to find alternate ways to get what one is seeking.
- Through Ace’s wishes not turning out the way he intends, we can see the value of details and being specific.
- Learning the value of the ability to choose. The Undiscovered Genie at the end of the book does not give a wishmaker the ability to choose their wishes or consequences. This very quickly demonstrates the importance of choice, even after Ace struggled with what the Universe was throwing his way the whole story.
Items of Interest:
- Ace, the main character, was at his third foster family. He was starting to feel at home after two years and hoping to maybe be adopted. Yet he accepts the consequence of never being able to find their house again based on the small hope that someone else can bring him back.
- Some of the consequences were rather unfortunate. Giving up the ability to read for a week, losing an arm for a day, losing the ability to tell left from right for a week, having your three favorite possessions destroyed. Having a yellow eye, a bright green tongue, and super stinky fish breath for the rest of your life.
- Thackery Anderthon is the villain, but he is also a father taking advantage of Jathon, his wishmaker son. Jathon literally gets thrown around and beaten to a pulp as a consequence for a wish, Thackery then tells him, “…I told you the consequence wouldn’t kill you!” He later tells his son that he is a failure. Closer to the end, “Thackery seized Jathon by the neck and pulled him to his feet. …he dragged him across the rope bridge.” Thackery does not seem phased by his son taking consequences to help him, despite the fact that Thackery’s motivation seems to stem from having made poor choices when he was a wishmaker as a boy.
- The Universe determines the consequences for wishes, not a genie or god.
- At face value, saving the world from zombie cats and dogs that will kill everyone could be mildly amusing. But I tried not to be haunted at the thought of everyone’s beloved family pets becoming a zombie and turning against them…and everyone else.
- Ace was being attacked by all of the stuffed teddy bears at a carnival, which started out as a fluffy, not painful thing. However, those teddy bears then went on to collect hammers and other tools from carnival games. Then they proceeded to use shrapnel to cover a bumper car. Ace was then in a bumper car trying to fend off the Guardian of the Ancient Consequence (seemingly a carnival vendor) in his shrapnel covered bumper car. I find the thought of shrapnel collecting teddy bears to also be the stuff of nightmares.
- Ace, Tina, Jathon, and Thackery were seeking out the Undiscovered Genie. Ace and Tina heard the warnings that the Undiscovered Genie brought chaos, but they didn’t understand how. The book ends with Tina getting her one consequence free wish from the Undiscovered Genie, which makes her the wishmaker for him. The Undiscovered Genie then gets the ability to choose wishes for Tina, and he doesn’t care about the consequences for her. She winds up losing her ability to speak, a permanent slack jaw, and a roller skate instead of a foot. The Undiscovered Genie will continue making wishes until her body no longer holds up.
Other Books in Series (At Time of Posting):
- The Wishbreaker (Book 2)
