One True Wish by Lauren Kate

I just finished reading the most current book I think I’ve ever read: One True Wish by Lauren Kate.

This book is so new, its pages are still warm. Haha.

The hardcopy was released on May 1.

Of this very year!

While I don’t love “Fantasy” with a capital “F,” I do enjoy fluttery fantasy about fairies and wishes, with a wing in the real world.

This book has all that, like a little orb of wonder.

One True Wish is a middle-grade story about a fairy who crash-lands in Texas from fairyland.

With her crumpled and useless wings, Phoebe’s only hope of getting back home is if she can prove that children exist.

Well.

Three children find the fairy in their secret crabapple hollow.

They do their best to prove to her that they are, in fact, children.

But Phoebe doesn’t believe them.

Even when they take her to school to show her other children, Phoebe isn’t buying it.

So the story moves along with the three kids trying to prove the existence of children in order to get the fairy back home.

Then, at about the halfway mark, the plot twists.

We learn that Phoebe better hurry up and begin granting wishes because she is losing her wish-granting strength and turning gray, AND someone she loves will be in serious peril if she doesn’t get home.

It’s up to the kids to help her.

But what can a kid do when the wish-granting fairy is incapacitated?

Is it possible to make your own wishes come true?

Would that even count toward helping the fairy?

I think it—well, read and find out.

As with all good stories this one is about more than one thing.

It’s not only about getting a fairy back on her feet—so to speak—and back home, but also about kids who feel out of place, kids who have body-image issues, kids who feel too young and immature, kids who feel like they need to stomp on anyone smaller than they are.

Kate handles the topics sensitively but doesn’t pussyfoot around.

It’s a non-saccharine, breath of fresh middle-grade air.

One True Wish sparkles with fairy and wish-granting facts (according to Phoebe and the author), such as a wish can only be granted if it is a true wish that stems from the person’s very core.

Adults don’t make wishes because they’ve stopped believing that things can ever change, so why bother with a wish. (Wow.)

Fairies are about the size of a loaf of bread. (I always imagined they were tiny things. Didn’t you?)

And don’t let anyone know your wish or it won’t come true.*

The story is told in the alternating viewpoints of the main characters, making for a fast-paced read about friendship, belonging, life changes, and wishes.

A magical recipe for a middle-grade story.

It’s a story for anyone (yes, I’m looking at you grownups, too) who wants to add a bit of glitter and effervescence to their life…and to see how three kids learn some important ideas to carry them through the tough middle-grade years.

One True Wish is Lauren Kate’s debut middle-grade novel.

She is a #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling author of young adult novels.

She also writes adult fiction.

(*Maybe kids shouldn’t tell anyone what their wish is, but I think adults should. We all know it takes a village to make things to happen. If you don’t tell your wish, how can your village step up and help? Just a thought.)