Making Wishes

Thousand Star Hotel
by The Okee Dokee Brothers
Sterling Children's Books, 2017
review copy provided by the publisher

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

Mr. and Mrs. Muskrat catch a giant golden catfish who asks for their mercy in return for a wish. Mrs. Muskrat wishes small and practical, but Mr. Muskrat keeps wishing bigger and bigger. His wish for not a 5-Star, but a Thousand Star hotel is granted, but you might guess from the cover that it's not quite what he expected. Luckily, Mrs. Muskrat knows how to make the best of the situation.

World Pizza
by Cece Meng
illustrated by Ellen Shi
Sterling Children's Books, 2017
review copy provided by the publisher

SPEAK CLEARLY WHEN YOU MAKE A WISH

When mama sneezes just as she's wishing on a shooting star, it comes out sounding like she wishes for world pizza. So pizza begins raining from the sky all around the world -- pizza in every ethnic flavor known or not known to chefs:

"Some people dipped their pizza in hummus, while others dipped their piza in guacamole. Some people made pizza chow mein and some people made pizza sushi. Some even made pizza soup."

Pizza solves problems, brings people together, and inspires love and kindness. Maybe mama got her wish after all!

The Paper-Flower Tree
by Jacqueline Ayer
Enchanted Lion Books, 2017
review copy provided by the publisher

IF YOUR WISH COMES TRUE, BELIEVE

Miss Moon falls in love with the paper-flower tree carried by the man who is traveling through her small village. She wants one of her own. The man gives her a paper flower that has a small bead -- a seed, he says -- to plant, which she does, watering it and keeping watch over it in spite of all who ridicule her. A year later, when the old man returns again with a troupe of performers, she reminds him about the paper-flower tree seed and tells him she's planted it and cared for it. The next morning, there is a paper-flower tree blooming right outside her house. No one else in the village believes that it grew from the bead/seed, but Miss Moon believes.