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The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree by…
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The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree (original 1983; edition 2019)

by Bill Brittain (Author), Andrew Glass (Illustrator)

Series: Coven Tree

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
1,0771918,709 (3.67)17
A strange man comes to town for the annual fair, claiming to be able to grant wishes for fifty cents apiece. He sells four wishes, one each to four townspeople, then promptly disappears. The story of each person and their wish is told separately, but by the end they're all nicely entwined.
A fun version of the Foolish Wish trope, but nothing earth-shattering here. ( )
  electrascaife | Jan 5, 2021 |
Showing 19 of 19
This book horrified me as a kid, and I still think about the tree roots scene. ( )
  AnonR | Aug 5, 2023 |
A strange man comes to town for the annual fair, claiming to be able to grant wishes for fifty cents apiece. He sells four wishes, one each to four townspeople, then promptly disappears. The story of each person and their wish is told separately, but by the end they're all nicely entwined.
A fun version of the Foolish Wish trope, but nothing earth-shattering here. ( )
  electrascaife | Jan 5, 2021 |
00008710
  lcslibrarian | Aug 13, 2020 |
This was a cute, kid friendly retelling of "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. The wishes were less gruesome, but still traumatic to the adolescents that were experiencing them. Some of them were actually quite comical. I could definitely see the kid appeal. ( )
  jguidry | Aug 2, 2020 |
This story takes place in a small town. The people are given tokens from a mysterious man at a carnival and are granted wished with those tokens.
  elindseyziegler | Mar 15, 2015 |
Cute book if an overworked premise.
Talk about the "precision" of words and how you have to really watch what you wish for when several people are given a token by a man at the carnival that will grant them One Wish. ( )
  FaithLibrarian | Aug 11, 2014 |
Summary: This book was about a small town. In the beginning they have a town carnival type thing at the church. One station had a sign saying wishes were being sold for fifty- cents. A few skeptical yet nosy townspeople went inside this booth and listened in disbelief to what the guy had to say. Afterwards they all parted ways and ended up making random wishes. All the wishes came with bad consequences in the end.

Personal Reflection: I really liked this book. Just like the saying goes, "never judge a book by it's cover." The outside of the book makes it seem like a book I would never read or be interested in, but I am very glad I read it.

Classroom Extensions:
1. This book would be good for students to read to learn about consequences with taking the easy way out.
2. This would be a great book to use for book club. There are a lot of fun activities that could go along with this book.

***Newberry***
  TaylorSchettler | Nov 19, 2013 |
When The Wish Giver comes to the Coven Tree church social, four townspeople exchange 50 cents each for one wish. They can't even begin to dream how their wishes will affect their lives.

I remember loving this book when I was in about fifth grade. I couldn't remember a thing about the story but I remember how much I loved this book.

It held up well! As a young reader, I doubt that I noticed that the story is a cautionary tale about being careful what you wish for, I just liked the fanciful way that the wishes turned out. Polly wishes that people would like her and smile when they see her. Rowena wishes that a handsome traveling salesman would put down roots in their town. Adam wishes for water all over his parents' farm. They get what they wish for, all right!

This was a quick, easy read for me and I'm pretty sure I smiled all the way through, reliving the magic I felt as a young reader. The illustrations by Andrew Glass are great too. There's one picture of the traveling salesman in particular that still sends a chill down my spine!

I wholehearted recommend this for younger readers. It's a fun story that would be a delight to read aloud with a child. ( )
1 vote JG_IntrovertedReader | Apr 3, 2013 |
this book has good aventers and magical lands polly (the main charecter)has this magical thing with a dot,it can grant any wish at all,but when she tries to make a wish"I wish people would finally notes me,but most of all I wish agetha would invite me to her house for tea"but then all of a sudden the dot turns red and gets realy realy hot polly lets go of it and it gose straight under the bed.The next day polly startes croking like a frog she got attention just not the kind of attention she was hoping for....... ( )
  alyssajane | Mar 18, 2011 |
This is a magic filled actoion packed book. When Polly, Rowena,and Adam go to the church social they see a tent that sticks out. The sign says "I can give you whatever yo ask for, for only cost 50 cents!

Read the book to figure out what happens next!
  monkeyman777 | Nov 9, 2010 |
As a child, I absolutely loved this book. The idea of a stranger coming to town and doling out wishes was fascinating to me, and of course I understood the lesson: Be careful what you wish for! ( )
  emilycsims | Nov 2, 2010 |
The Wish Giver takes place in a small close knit farm town in New England called Coven Tree. Everyone in this town believes in the existence of magical beings and creatures. One Sunday afternoon at the church social four different people sat in the tent of a strange little man. The four characters include Polly a young lady that always speaks her mind even if it hurts people around her; Rowena was a 15 year old girl that falls in love easily, Adam a loyal son, and Stew a practical shop owner that is very suspicious of the strange little man Thaddeus Blinn. Thaddeus Blinn talks to the group of four in the tent and sells them each a little white card with a red dot on it. He tells the four that if they press there thumb to this dot, and make a wish, there wish will come true. Everyone leaves the tent feeling cheated and a little foolish for wasting there money on a silly little piece of paper. The story breaks apart after the four main characters leave the smelly canvas tent of Thaddeus Blinn.

The first part of the story tells the tale of Polly’s wish. Polly wants nothing more than to be invited to the house of Agatha a rich young lady, whom Polly looks up to with admiration. Polly makes a wish for everyone to like her, and notice her. Polly soon finds out that her wish has serious drawbacks. Every time Polly starts to speak her mind in her usual rude manner, she starts croaking like a big toad. Everyone notices Polly and laughs at her. Throughout Polly’s story she learns that if she is nice to people, and complements them she will not croak. Polly also notices that her days end a lot happier when she is nicer to people. Polly soon realizes that no matter what she does she will never be able to say a crossword to anyone ever again even if it is needed. Polly realizes that she was not the only one in the tent, and maybe there is another card left for her to wish on.

The second story is that of Rowena. Rowena is in love with a traveling salesman named Henry Piper. Henry is a smooth talking salesman that charms all the ladies around him. Rowena is convinced that Henry is in love with her. When Henry finally comes to town he comes to visit the farm and sell Rowena’s father some new farm equipment. Rowena talks to Henry after he finishes visiting with her father. Rowena is smitten and begs Henry to stay awhile longer. After Henry leaves Rowena quickly remembers her card and wishes that Henry would make roots in Coven Tree and settle down. Rowena soon here’s a scream from a grove of trees outside, and finds that Henry is stuck to the ground. Rowena cares for Henry until she can find a way to fix what she started. Rowena finds out while caring for Henry, what kind of person he really is. Rowena realizes that he just used her to help him sell equipment to her father. Rowena finally thinks about the other three that were in the tent with her and runs as fast as she can to the store of Stew Meade.

The third story in the book is about Adam. Adam is an older boy who helps his father out with his dried out farm. Adam hates that he has to haul water from a creek that is all the way across town. Adam has to make trips to the creek almost everyday to keep there water supply for cleaning, cooking, and watering the animals and crops. Adams father brings in a man to locate water one day and the man tells them that there is not one drop of water on there land. Adam is very disappointed and decides to make his wish. Adam wishes there was water all over the farm. The next day while digging some holes for fence posts Adam goes inside for a break and soon finds that the holes are spurting water. The family is happy as can be until the next day when there land started to flood. The entire farm gets covered by water and turns into a giant pond. Adam remembers his wish and remembers that with the strange happenings of Polly and Rowena it must be the wish that caused all the problems. Adam thinks of Stew and runs as fast as he can to town.

The last of the story takes place in Stew Meade’s general store. Stew is just closing up shop when the three youngsters come bursting in. Stew calms them all down and listens to their stories. The kids start fighting over who needs there wish revoked the most, but Stew makes his own wish. Stew cancelled out everything and added he did not want any of the trouble that the 3 youngsters encountered upon wishing their wishes.

I loved this book! The book was a great story, and I love how the stories were broken apart but all converged together at the end of the book. The characters were very believable and realistic. I felt like I knew everyone of them personally. I loved the use of language in this book; I think it captures the small town life of close knit communities. It is also great that everyone knows everybody else’s business.

This would be a great book to practice the character webbing with. It would be interesting to use it in literature circles. I think this book would interest the kids and give them a lot to talk about.
  JillianWilliams | Nov 14, 2009 |
once again, this book is right up in the twilight range as far as favorites go. beware of the red dotted cards! the only summary for this book i can give is BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR ( )
  hippieJ | Mar 9, 2009 |
A simple story from a largely forgotten time in the U.S., when traveling carnivals were more common and a “big deal” when they did come into town. I thought it was cute and very appropriate for reader’s 8-10 ish (or so). I didn’t realize there was a book before this one, the Devil’s Donkey…but since I’ve decided not to trade The Wish Giver away (keeping it for the kids to read when they wan to), I’ll probably be getting this one too. The book is written in a chapter style where each chapter is kind of a short story all on it’s own, but the stories all fit together to tell a larger tale in the end. Cute, easy read…and I’d recommend it for kids (though the meaning of the whole thing is rather transparent…be careful what you wish for). ( )
  the_hag | Jun 30, 2008 |
This is a story about three children who purchase a wish for fifty cents. I would love to use this in a middle school class, discussing how we often don't know what good things to ask for. The theme carries some significant theological implications (although the book isn't a bit religious). A related theme can be found in ...and Now Miguel. Works very well as a read aloud-- the story flows well, and the book allows for a number of excellent discussions about dynamic characters, appearance and reality, true friendship, and of course, wishes.
  mebrock | Feb 25, 2008 |
It was a really good book for those people who like fantasy. It was about a lot of kids who wished something they desired except one, Stew Meat. ( )
  YV21 | Oct 2, 2007 |
(4.7)
  mrsforrest | Nov 19, 2014 |
Juvenile find a wish giver and odd things start to happen.
  austinwood | Sep 19, 2009 |
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