O'Connor, Barbara. Wish.

O'Connor, Barbara.  Wish. Macmillan/Farrar Strauss  2016    227p    $16.99  ISBN 978-0-374-30273-3     elem/ms  Realistic fiction  E-BN   

Charlemagne “Charlie” Reese is suddenly living in Colby, North Carolina, with Betha and Gus, an aunt and uncle she has never met before. Her dad, Scrappy, in in jail, and her mom won’t get off the couch. Charlie has her dad’s short temper and is not looking forward to living with a bunch of hillbillies in Colby. When Howard is made her “backpack buddy” at school and won’t leave her alone, she knows she is doomed. But Colby might not be as bad as she thinks. Charlie sees a stray dog she names Wishbone and decides she must catch him, saying she too knows what it’s like to be a stray. Charlie learns what love looks like in Colby: namely, Bertha and Gus, in their love for one another, and Howard’s way of seeing the best in people and helping Charlie catch Wishbone, even when her temper gets the best of her. Charlie makes the same wish every day and has been doing it for years, and even though it doesn’t come true the way she thought it would, in the end she gets her wish in a most unexpected place. This is a beautiful story for upper-elementary and middle-school students who want something realistic with a little drama but lots of love.              

Summary: Charlie’s dad is getting “corrected” and her mama won’t get off the couch, so she is forced to move to a hick town in North Carolina to live with an aunt and uncle she doesn’t even know. Can this be just what she needs for the wish she has been making every day since the fourth grade to come true?

Dysfunctional families-Fiction                                                                                   —Erin Daley