The Wish Giver = Summary
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.
Lesson Ideas:
Cause and Effect Graphic organizer:
Cause and Effect: Be careful what you wish for!
Use a graphic organizer to tell what happened in the three wishes of the story.
1. The teacher will read aloud Part 1 of The Wish Giver as an introduction to the book.
2. The teacher will read aloud Part 2. Then, model using a cause-effect graphic organizer to answer the allowing questions to help the students identify the cause and the effect.
- What happened in this part of the story?
- Why did it happen?
- What caused the main character to act as he or she did?
- What effect did these actions have on others?
3. The teacher will then model using the graphic organizer to write a paragraph telling about what happened to Polly and why it happened. Teacher will model using the cause/effect transition words above in the paragraph.
4. In small groups, students will read Part 3 and use the cause/effect graphic organizer to answer the questions above.
5. The students will then write a paragraph in their journals telling about what happened to Rowena and why it happened Students will then check for correct use of cause/effect transition words.
6. In small groups, students will read Part 4 and repeat this procedure used for Part 3.
7. The students will now write in their journal about Adam telling what happened to him and why.
8. Repeat for Part 5/Stew Meat.
9. Students will select the character from the novel that they think had the greatest influence, positive or negative, on the other characters and write a letter explaining why they think this character had such an effect on the other characters.