Customer Reviews

Wish on a Unicorn (A Puffin Book)

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This is a wonderfully told story that deals with the love of family and hope through the eyes of a young girl and her siblings who are living in poverty with their mother. The three children are dealing with difficult problems-the younger brother has been accused of stealing, the younger sister is dealing with a learning disability of some kind, and the older sister desperately wants to fit in with more well-to-do and snobby girls at school. Pulling away from her family in her attempts to fit in the other girls, Mags is led to rediscover magic and possibilities. Over time and in response to a crisis I won't give away, Mags also learns to accept her sister's vision of magical hope and her brother's understanding of trust.

Teenage Mags has a tough life; considered Trailer Trash by their
country neighbors, she is embarrassed: by not having a father, having to wear hand-me-downs, a sister who is developmentally slow and a kid brother who is branded a thief. Working two jobs Mama doesn't have time to be there for her children or sympathetic to a teen's social problems.

One day after school the sisters discover a dirty, stuffed unicorn leaning against a fence post in a field. Immediately Hannie claims the disreputable creature as her own--perhaps sensing that this throw-away animal needs her love and protection. Mags realizes that
the idea that a disheveled unicorn could actually grant Wishes has a childlike appeal. Realistic Mags knows that this is utterly impossible, but part of her secretly hopes that it Might be true. Oh, if each one of the maligned siblings could have one wish each...

It is left up to the reader to decide if the filthy toy possesses any real magic, but some of the kids' wishes come true quickly--or is it just coincidence? Mags comes of age as she wrestles with more responsibility than a girl her age should have to shoulder while trying desperately to be accepted by a popular pair of girls. She feels dragged down by peer accusations that little Mooch is stealing food, and by the cruel observations that Hannie--whom she dearly loves--will never be normal. Yet why is this special-needs child suddenly happier than she has been in a long while, even talking more? It is from flawed Hannie that Mags learns the source of real magic and the mostimportant things she should cherish about her outwordly limpoverished life. The real magic was waiting to be found closer than she ever dreamed.