9 Magic Wishes - Hardcover

Jackson, Shirley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374355258 ISBN 13: 9780374355258

Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR), 2001

Synopsis

Magical new illustrations for a story by the author of The Lottery

A girl is given nine wishes by a mysterious magician, and her choices perfectly capture a childlike imagination. For example, wish one is for an orange pony with a purple tail; wish two is for a squirrel holding a nut that opens and inside is a Christmas tree; wish eight is for a little box and inside is another box and inside is another box and inside is another box and inside that is an elephant . . . But the girl is hard pressed to make a ninth wish, and instead leaves it on a rock for some other lucky person to find.

Miles Hyman, who is the grandson of Shirley Jackson, has created paintings that capture the enchantment of the text, which was first published with different pictures in 1963 and has long been out of print.

About this title

About the Author

Shirley Jackson (1919-65), the author of The Haunting of Hill House, is considered one of the masters of modern gothic fiction.

Miles Hyman is an acclaimed illustrator whose books include Broadway Chicken by Jean-Luc Fromental. He lives in Los Angeles, California.

Reviews

reS-Gr 2-In this offbeat tale, a girl is given nine wishes by a magician. A few of her wishes are for fairly typical desires: a snowman, a garden made of candy flowers, and a miniature zoo. However, she also requests some bizarre things-an orange pony with a purple tail and blue eyes; a clown who is acquainted with tricks, games, and songs and has a butterfly on his nose; and a squirrel holding a nut that, when opened, reveals a Christmas tree. When the magician points out that the child has one final wish, she tells him "there is really nothing more to wish for." The last wish is placed on a rock for someone else to find. While the objects the youngster names could conceivably lead readers to speculate about what they might wish for given the opportunity, they simply sound outlandish and silly. Though Hyman has done an adequate job of representing the story in his soft-focus, muted color illustrations, many of the pictures are static-the running pony appears to be suspended above a field of sunflowers. This story was originally published 38 years ago (Crowell-Collier; o.p.). It is unlikely to hold much appeal for today's children.

Maryann H. Owen, Racine Public Library, WI

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Luminous pastels by Jackson's grandson breathe life into this haunting 1963 tale, the only children's book written by the author of "The Lottery." Hyman sets the stage for the story's mix of fantasy and reality in the opening spreads. A lone leaf falls from high above a rural landscape as a house comes into view. With the opening lines, "Today was a very funny day. The sky was green and the sun was blue and all the trees were flying balloons," the artist turns up the magic, yet makes the text seem somehow logical. On the front stoop of the house sits a girl in a poppy-covered sundress, and a caped wizard offers her nine wishes. Eight wishes spring to life in warmly burnished, full-bleed images. For "a garden of flowers all made of candy," the light streaming through the leaves of a candy cane-striped tree echoes the poppies on the girl's dress; a tropical sunset backlights the mountains through which the girl and her cat float on "a silver ship with sails of red." Yet the duo always seems earthbound. The heroine politely turns down the ninth wish: "Thank you,... but there is really nothing more to wish for." The wizard leaves the last wish in a shimmering scarlet box on a lily pad for someone else, then turns back into a leaf and drifts up into the sky. Jackson's poetic scenes and Hyman's visual imagination provide the real wizardry here. Ages 4-up.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Ages 5-7. The writer of The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House first published this sweetly surreal story in 1963. Here, it's illustrated anew by her grandson. Hyman's carefully rendered images have the rich and glowing texture of pastels and anchor the fanciful text. On a day when the sky is green and the sun is blue, a little girl sees a magician on her street who offers her nine wishes. Each wish is faithfully imagined on the page opposite the text: an orange pony with a purple tail flies over a field of sunflowers; a garden of candy flowers shows just the bottom half of the child, reaching on tiptoe for a candy cane from the candy cane tree. Although the magician offers her the last, ninth wish, she says that she has nothing more to wish for, so he places a box with the wish on a rock for someone else to find. Then, he turns into an autumn leaf, "and the wind blew him away." Oddly charming. GraceAnne DeCandido
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374355258
• ISBN 13: 9780374355258
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Hyman Miles
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32