Wish You Well
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Two starred reviews!
From the acclaimed author of Roll with It comes a “winning, cathartic joy ride” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) of a middle grade novel about three kids with big diagnoses, bigger personalities, and one outrageous plan to team up and scam a wish-granting foundation.
Violet Marino doesn’t want sympathy. And she definitely doesn’t want friends. She just wants to play soccer and deal with the whole slowly-going-blind thing on her own terms.
Then she witnesses a boy choke on a hot dog at a hospital picnic. Enter Wyatt: dangerously charming and full of terrible ideas, especially for a kid with a newly transplanted heart. Add sharp-as-a-blade Noor, who is always armed with excellent snacks she can’t eat, thanks to chemo. Other than their illnesses, the three don’t have much in common—except for the fact that a wish-granting foundation keeps calling.
Ever the optimist, Wyatt has a plan: team up to game the foundation, even if it means faking friendship. One wish is fine, but three sick kids on three epic adventures? That’s history-making. The scheme starts off as a distraction. But soon the stakes feel real. Because when you finally let someone in, there’s more to lose.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sumner (Schooled) combines hard-won hope and biting humor in a striking novel about a trio of chronically ill kids who scheme to manipulate a wish-granting charity. For four years, 13-year-old Violet Marino has navigated progressive blindness caused by macular degeneration. While attending an annual picnic at Nashville's Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, she meets fellow rising eighth graders Wyatt Cass, a recent heart transplant recipient, and Noor Singh, who's undergoing chemotherapy following the removal of several Wilms tumors. Though they barely know one another, reticent Violet and acerbic Noor agree to optimistic Wyatt's plan: the trio will individually apply for a wish from charity organization Wish on a Star and, when their desires are granted—"Who could say no to cancer and blindness and failed hearts?"—insist that each be brought along for the fulfillment of one another's wishes. As their ploy gains traction, their initially far-fetched relationships deepen, forcing them to embrace emotional vulnerability in a way they haven't done since the onset of their illnesses. Organic, perceptive dialogue relays the fully realized protagonists' fears and anxieties surrounding their health challenges and arrayed adolescent concerns, including crushes and future planning. Dynamic character interactions celebrate connection in the face of triumphs and hardships, culminating in a winning, cathartic joy ride. Ages 10–up.
