Featured Photo by Maria Khatami on Unsplash

Thank you to NetGalley and Shadow Mountain Publishing for sending me a free ARC of this book to read.

This post is different from the usual fare on here. This time, I’m reviewing a middle-grade children’s book. I saw Wish on a Willow listed in the Publishers Weekly Grab-a-Galley event and the summary caught my interest, plus I loved the cover, so I decided to try to request it. And they actually sent me a copy, so hooray!

Wish on a Willow is about a young girl, Eloise, who gets dropped off at her Grandpa’s house for the summer after her father gets into a bad motorbike accident and falls into a coma. While she’s there, she makes two new friends, Kimiko and Olive, and discovers a willow tree on her Grandpa’s property that offers more than meets the eye.

The three girls quickly find out that the tree has magic properties and start brainstorming ideas to use the magic to grant the wishes they desire most, which includes healing Eloise’s dad. However, their plans run into various obstacles along the way, as Eloise’s lies and a determined land developer create a tangled journey. Eloise faces the pressure of trying to beat two clocks: one to save her dad’s life, and the other to prevent the land developer from taking the willow tree down.

This read was fairly melancholy at times due to the fate of Eloise’s dad remaining unclear for much of it; anyone who’s ever had an unwell loved one in the hospital knows how nightmarish this experience is. However, this book overall felt lighthearted, hopeful, and fresh, which is a delicate balance to pull off with a topic as sensitive as an injured/dying parent.

This book also effectively captures the innocence and naivety of youth and of wanting to believe that things can be good even when they appear bleak. At times, Eloise makes decisions that hurt her and her friends, but this is due to her lack of experience in the world and her childlike drive to make everything okay again and restore normalcy. Not having the right answers isn’t framed as a bad thing. These incidents become learning experiences that help Eloise understand herself and her reality more clearly.

The prose is straightforward enough for young readers to have an easy time with while still introducing them to more complex concepts, and it conveys the personalities of the three girls and the various side characters with humor and thoughtfulness.

Reading Wish on a Willow provided a nice mental reprieve from the heaviness of the world and helped me remember why indulging in hopeful stories is crucial. It’s a quick read, and the plot moves at an even pace to keep you engaged until the end.

Pick up this book if you like:

• Magic flora
• Small-town stories
• Nature-focused stories
• The power of community and friendship

Pass it by if you don’t want to read about:

• Mentions of pretty bad injuries, amputation, and a coma
• A bad traffic accident (happens before the book starts but is mentioned throughout)
• Some bullying based on cultural differences
• Grief