The Wish Sisters #1: The Party Wish (Allison Rushby, illus by Karen Blair, UQP)
The Party Wish is the first book in the middle-grade series The Wish Sisters by Allison Rushby. At just under 100 pages it follows Flick and baby Birdie, who discover they have the means to make wishes come true. However, they’re unaware of this until Flick reads Birdie’s favourite book about Petunia the unicorn’s party for the umpteenth time, and Flick wishes Birdie would realise how silly the story is. The next morning there’s a unicorn in the backyard ‘depositing’ cupcakes, a marshmallow pit and a floating cake made of clouds. It turns out the bottle collection Granny Aggie left to her grandkids contains an imp who grants unlimited wishes. The family seize the opportunity of a party already set up in their backyard and invite their neighbours along. This spells trouble when the imp decides to twist certain wishes and Flick ends up with a ponytail growing out of her nose. The Party Wish is a light, easy read that kids will gobble up. It will appeal to children who enjoy Daisy Meadows’ Rainbow Magic books but in a shorter format. The next in the series is The Big Wish, where the imp will no doubt get up to even more mischief.
Books+Publishing reviewer: Katie Haydon is a library officer in Geelong and a former assistant editor of Books+Publishing. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.
