First Book Review - Kaelie C.

Wishworks, Inc. Book Review

Introduction:

            Wishworks, Inc. is a children’s novel that stood out to me while I searched for a book at the Columbus Public Library. This book has many lessons in it, especially involving social skills, and had me interested to figure out if Goldie returns to Max’s life and family. The main concepts of this book include bullying, making friends, and family. Also, Max learns how to appreciate what he has and to help his family be happy. Wishworks, Inc. had many important aspects that Max shares with the reader throughout the story.

Summary:

Out of all the different types of children’s literature, Wishworks, Inc. stands out for its uniqueness and real-life experiences children have. Max is the main character in this novel and on a daily basis, imagines a world where he and his dog, King, conquer dragons and bullies. His mother and sister, named Polly, play a big role in his life as Goldie enters the family’s lives. Max imagines a store named Wishworks, Inc. where he buys wishes and discusses his wish dilemmas with the cashier. He makes three wishes throughout the novel: first, he wishes for a real dog, then he wishes that Goldie, aka Ratty, would go away, and finally, he wishes for the exactly right real dog. Following Max’s imagination, Goldie comes into his family’s lives, runs away, and is returned by a friend’s father. Throughout the story, he creates imaginary scenarios but comes to realize that he can share his imagination with a friend named Jerome. In the end, Max realizes that he can still have both dogs, his imaginary dog King and Goldie, and learns to appreciate family and friends.

Critical Thinking:

Bullying

            Throughout the story, Max experiences many situations involving a bully, named Nick Berger. In the beginning of the book, Max describes Nick as a powerful, intimidating person and Max would constantly imagine things happening to Nick, such as a dragon attacking him. Because of Nick, Max experiences isolation, depressive thoughts, and constantly creates imaginary scenarios involving King’s protection. Towards the end of the book, Max finally accepts and befriends Goldie and goes on a walk with his newly-made friend Jerome. During their walk, Max and Jerome run into Nick Berger and his mother. Goldie immediately defends Max and Jerome against Nick while Nick begins to cry since he is scared of dogs. Even though Nick was a powerful bully in the beginning of the book, Max ends up becoming the more powerful character because of Goldie. This approach to bullying could show students that bullying is never the answer and that even bullies have fears. When Max doesn’t take advantage of Nick’s dog fear, it shows readers a good way to not become a bully and make friends instead.

Gender Roles

            Gender roles seem to be another aspect that is implemented in Wishworks, Inc. Towards the middle of the book, Max imagines himself sleeping with King in his bed and the family cat, Ali Baba, sleeping in his sister Polly’s bed. This associates dogs with boys and cats with girls, which can be considered stereotypical gender roles. Also, Max’s imaginary dog being named King shows that this dog is very powerful and masculine. King acts like Max’s protector and defender in Max’s daydreams and does everything Max asks him to. Throughout the book, Max’s dad briefly discusses with him how to handle bullies at school. The only parts of the conversation that Max thinks about in the book involve Max stopping his daydreaming and going out to make real friends. As the reader, Max’s opinion on this seems to be that he doesn’t agree with his dad and wants to continue daydreaming. Towards the end of the book, Max seems to realize what his dad was trying to tell him and becomes a more confident with himself. With his last wish, Max becomes the hero and saves his mother and Polly, since they had both been depressed with Goldie’s disappearance, by wishing Goldie’s return back to their family.

Pictures/Illustrations

            While reading Wishworks, Inc., the reader is able to see many different illustrations depicting Max’s story. In the beginning, the illustrations show Max’s imaginary scenarios and what King would look like. When Max makes his three wishes, the reader sees pictures of the shop and cashier. When Goldie becomes the family dog, there are illustrations of Max, Polly, and her, which do not involve Max’s imaginary world. The pictures in the book seem to go along with how Max grows and learns that his imaginary world is fun, but his real world can be enjoyable as well.
Possible Class Activities

            Max and his imagination throughout the book allows for there to be many different class activities that can involve this story. One activity could be to have students create a wish list, trade with another student and discuss, and then have a class discussion about the lists. Some questions the teacher could ask would be what the students’ wishes were and how they could achieve them. Another classroom activity could be using this book as an introduction to bullying; students would learn what bullying is, what they should do in a bullying situation, and how to prevent it. This activity would help expand their social and safety skills. One last activity that a teacher could have involving this book is having the students write a story about an adventure in their imaginary world. This activity would help nurture the students’ creativity and imagination. The topics covered in this book allow for a wide variety of classroom activities and can help students learn important life lessons.

Appropriate Age/Grade Level

            Wishworks, Inc. would be a great book for children in 4^th or 5^th grade and at ages of 10-12 years old. There are many features of this book that make it appropriate for this age level. One feature is text size; the text size is larger than regular 12-point which allows for better letter recognition and comprehension. Also, chapters are generally short to medium length; this age level would be appropriate since their attention span is longer and comprehension skills are more developed than with younger children. The book language includes many big words, such as guarantee and immediately. This language can be challenging to some students, which would be great for expanding vocabulary and comprehension skills. As previously stated, the bullying and creative concepts in this book would also be great for those topic introductions, respectively. Wishworks, Inc. allows for many lessons to be learned, but the appropriate age needs to be considered when choosing this book.

Final Thoughts

            Overall, Wishworks, Inc. was a good book with some quirky qualities and definitely would be good for students to learn about bullying. Max definitely goes through many stressful experiences in the book, but ends up becoming a more confident boy; I think Max’s transition is a realistic example of childhood development for 4^th and 5^th grade children. As a reader, I could definitely relate to Max’s experiences and felt like Goldie taught him more about himself. I think that bullying is a really important topic this book addresses and could be utilized in the classroom for effective education and prevention. Wishworks, Inc. is a book that has many important lessons and is a good read for children at the appropriate age.

Citation:

Tolan, S. (2009). Wishworks, Inc. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books.