The Wish Giver audiobook

I first read this book when I was in grade school. I remembered being captivated by both the story and the way the frogs in the book croaked, "jug-a-rum." I was thinking about this book a few weeks ago and decided to give it another read to find out what had captivated me so much as a child. As with many things I have found magical as a child, I cannot say for sure what it was about this book that moved me to ask my parents for a copy of it to call my own (I had to get the copy I read from a library because most of the books from my childhood were destroyed in a flood.) That isn't to say that the book wasn't delightful to read as an adult. This tale of "be careful what you wish for" is well-written and stood the test of time. I was never bored even though I could recall a great deal of the book as I read. It is in fact a testament to the magic of the book, the author, and the tale that it was able to speak to the person I was in such a way that I would seek it out to try to experience for a moment the innocence of a younger me reading a tale about magic men, girls who croak, and boys who are wished into becoming vegetation.

This is a very cute book, with three tales. I read this as part of trying to read Newbery Medal Award and Nominees and finding out old jewel books on the way. Polly, the girl, that wishes that other children will pay attention to her, and instead of her voice gets a bullfrog’s croak.Rowena, who is in love with Henry, and just wants him to love her back and not leave so frequently, and gets Henry to stay with her wish.And last, Adam, who wants to have water in the family farm. But his wish is going a bit wrong.Each one is learning a lesson from their wish. And of course, there has to be a way to undo these wishes that go so wrong. The bullfrog story reminds of the scene from The Phantom of the Opera. Maybe Andrew Lloyd Webber was inspired by this book that was published three years before Phantom made it out. Almost 4 stars.

I first heard this book in elementary school and I absolutely fell in love with it. The stories are clever and have the twist of being written in the same style as folklore tales like "The Devil and Daniel Webster" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" -- a style I absolutely love.The story is somewhat predictable--strange little man comes to town offering wishes, but the wishes don't go as planned, and everyone learns a lesson in the end--but it is written with such charm and wit and the predictability actually seems to add to the story.A couple years ago I bought a copy on Amazon and read it to my kids. They loved it and two have since read it again. So I recommend it for everyone!

A nice easy read.

at the begining of the book they are at a church social and see this tent that had a sign infront of it saying i can make all your wishes come true.so they all pay 50cents to make a wish but the thing is all there wishes are turned around cause they didnt word them right so the first chapter is about rowina and her wish is that people woluld pay more attention and wants to get invited to agatha and eurnices house.the second one is all about rowina her wish is that henry would plant roots but what she actully ment was that she wanted him to stay in coven tree so instead he turned into a tree cause thaddis blinn had turn her wish into what she said and her lesson learned is to never judge a book by its cover.chapter2 is about adam who made the best wish for his family but worded it really wrong his wish was that the whole farm was coverd with water so the farm got flooded instad of just having a pond.last chapter is about stew meat aka stwert his wish was worded right his didnt get messed up he wished that all the four youngings wish was cannncelled and every thing was back to normal and i want to tell you something polly learned that never say mean things and you will have more friends so every time she got mad she would say something bad to you the thing is to not get on here nerves

Genre: FantasyFour people from the town of Coven Tree stumble across a tent at the church social. Inside is a stubby little man named Thaddeus Blinn who claims he can make any wish come true. He gives each of the four a card and tells them to wish if they would like. Three of them decide on their own time to do it. Interestingly enough their exact wishes come true, but not in the way they intended. They must figure out a way to reverse the magic that has happened.I thought this was a cute book with a good lesson to learn: Be careful what you wish for!Ideas for the classroom:-Great book for lower/struggling readers-Discussion on how words/language has changed over the years: ex)They say the phrase "Consarn it" a lot, which we have replaced today with "Darn it" and "Oh Shute"-Discussion of the theme of Be Careful What You Wish For and any personal connections

Wonderful children’s story that tells the age old lesson: Be Careful What You Wish ForFull review here:https://bookshelfadventures.home.blog...

This book was really fun! I did not finish it, but I only had a few pages left.

This book was SO good! FANTASTIC!!! I love middle school and elementary school reading level books, because of what they teach you. As a kid you are learning how to be a good person and live a good life, so all the books you read teach you that. YA books and adult books, as good as they may be, are most of the time filled with a bunch of crap. Whereas children's books and middle school easy reads are for pretty much 99% of time clean, and wholesome. They are straightforward, teach you a lesson and moral, and are magical. We fall in love with reading as a kid because we read these magical, wonderful stories, that teach us how to... live. That's why I love to turn back and read a favorite childhood book, or walk the aisles of the Junior fiction or even the picture book section to find some real wholesome and awesome reading material. Anyway, this book was one my 9 year old sister was reading for her book club and I read it too. It was SO SO SO good! It won a Newberry Honor award (And 90% of the time that means it's a GREAT read) which it was, SO GREAT. The writing was very straightforward and to the point. It's only 180 pages and the font is a bigger size, but that made it very straightforward. There's the saying that you shouldn't use 70 words when you only need to use 7. That was the case with this book at some times. But, that is one of the great qualities about children's books. You can be straightforward and let the readers imagination take them on a great adventure. SO, now for the actual review of the book here. I'll try not to spoil it so much, but if you'd like to be completely surprised when you read it (I recommend it for everyone) then don't read from here. I loved this book. The narrator Stew Meat was great, and so were Polly, Rowena, and Adam. I loved the lesson Polly learned, that if you want people to like you, you have to be nice to them. You can't just wish them to like you. You need to stop being mean, swallow the insult, and BE A FRIEND! I loved Rowena's story the most. I felt like I connected to her the most. How many times do I set someone on a pedestal and almost worship them? I think that I have quite a few "Henry Piper's" in my life that I love and daydream about, but maybe if I knew truly what was on the inside of that "Henry", not just on the outside, I wouldn't like them as much. If I could truly have that wish granted that they would stay in my life, I would probably learn awfully quick how much I didn't actually like that Henry. It makes me wonder how many "Sam Waxman's" I miss because I've blinded myself by the perfect amazing, and yet completely fake, "Henry." Sam and Rowena were SO cute! Adam's story was the most boring out of all three. I didn't really feel a connection. But, it was interesting how much you can want something, and wish for something, but when it finally comes, you don't want it at all. How many times have I wished for something to make my job, and my work easier? But then, when that new invention, or wish granted or something comes sometimes I'd rather just do the Job. Wishes and magic don't exactly fix everything. It was like king Midas. Thaddeus Blinn and his wish cards. Sometimes wishing can just cause nothing but trouble. Its better to just change yourself, make your life better yourself, and be happy with how things are. This little book was jam-packed with lessons and I loved it. I want to read all of the other "Coven Tree" books. It was an elementary level read that didn't disappoint. :)

I first read this book back in grade school, when I was around eight or nine. I remember being completely drawn into the story, and I hung on every word. Fast forward to me finding the book at a local secondhand bookstore years later. I grabbed it off the shelf immediately and bought it without a second thought. It's still as wonderful as ever.The "be careful what you wish for" moral has been used in thousands of stories, so this isn't a new concept. You also somehow know exactly where the story is heading (or maybe this is just me as an adult, because I do slightly remember having "Aha!" moments as a kid reading this). Despite all this, it's straightforward and tells things as they are, and the storytelling is delightful: bleak and yet humorous, told in the wry tone of Stew Meat, a no-nonsense narrator-slash-main-character curious enough to involve himself in the main plot in the first place and wise enough to listen to children without admonishing them.I'm glad I bought the book, and I'm glad I read it again. This is definitely something I'll want my daughter to read in a year or two - a good balance of real-world (as real as it can get with magic and shady salesmen) lessons and hope.

The book “The Wish Giver” tells three stories of three different wishes, that have many troubling consequences for the wishers. The “wish giver” grants any wish you can think of, and travels around the world granting people's wishes. One day three kids are at a town festival and discover a mysterious tent that wasn't very popular because it seemed like a scam. But the three kids gave him a chance and most of the money they had for the festival on the wishes. The wish giver gave the kids a card that would grant any one of their wishes. They were skeptical but they took the cards and went home. They would get their wishes but more than they bargained for.I would highly recommend the book “The Wish Giver” It is a wonderful book for people of all ages. It’s a tale about magic men, girls who croak, and boys who are wished into becoming vegetation. A very good read if you like adventure as well as mystery. It's the perfect combination. The story is somewhat predictable, strange little man comes to town offering wishes, but the wishes don't go as planned, and everyone learns a lesson in the end, but it is written with such charm and wit and the predictability actually seems to add to the story. I would give this story a 4/5

I read this book on the recommendation of one of my students. She said it was one of her favorite books growing up, so she passed it along for me to read. I had never heard of it, so I was curious what made her like it so much. Unlike what I normally do, I didn't read anything about what the book was about, other than that it was fantasy and that from the title it had something to do with wishes. So it was interesting reading Polly's story and slowly realizing that this book was going to be a lesson in "be careful what you wish for". I thought it was very well written and I liked that the author went from Polly's story to Rowena's story to Adam's story and slowly connected them back to Stew Meat's story (he was the narrator). Although Stew Meat calls it the "evil" that befell their town, I like that all three kids learned lessons that ended up helping them and maturing them. Polly's rant at Stew Meat at the end also made me laugh. Overall, it was probably not a 5 star book for me, but I enjoyed it very much and it's good to see an old story like this stand the test of time.

This book is an interesting version of ones I have heard before. It seems like a story my dad would tell. It's set far enough in the past that it was interesting to me. I personally enjoyed it very much and would suggest it to an older child to read. I like that it followed the different characters, I think it gave a good sense of the town and all the different kinds of people in it.The issue of magic makes it understandable that it was on the banned list. I think the different characters show how people are different in the real world. Some of the characters disliked others purely because of their class which represents how many people feel today. I don't think that is something I would want my children to learn. I think it is something to learn from though, to show acceptance.It took a little while for anything to really happen. I was 1/5th of the way through the book before any magic happened. There was a lot of backstory that wasn't necessary I feel.