The Wishing Game is a charming story about the impact good books can have on young lives and the importance of never giving up on your dreams. If you need a break from dark, heavy novels, The Wishing Game can help cleanse your reading palette while also providing whimsical entertainment.

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Let’s begin with a summary of The Wishing Game.

Lucy grew up reading the Clock Island series of books for children. Part mystery, part fantasy and always positive and hopeful, the books gave Lucy and many other kids a temporary escape from their less-than-ideal realities. When she was younger, Lucy even ran away to the real Clock Island to meet the author and be his sidekick.

Lucy is now grown up, working as a teacher’s aide, and passing on her love of Clock Island books to a little boy she tutors named Christopher. Christopher is in the foster care system, having lost both of his parents, and Lucy dreams of adopting him and becoming a family. But with her current income, that dream is unlikely to come true.

And then a contest is announced that could change the course of Lucy’s and Christopher’s lives. Jack, the author of the Clock Island series, hasn’t written a novel in over six years, but he’s now finishing a book and the sole copy will go to the winner of the contest to do with as they please.

Only people who ran away to Clock Island when they were kids are invited to participate in the contest for the book, which includes Lucy and just three others. They convene on the island off the coast of Maine and the contest begins.

I’ll just leave it at that.

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Although a little sappy, I really enjoyed The Wishing Game. Lucy is easy to like and relate to. She is tenacious in holding on to dreams as well as bad memories, which can be both admirable and a little frustrating, and altogether human. The character of Jack the author is also well done, and it is easy to believe that he deeply cares about the four former “runaways”.

The story is an interesting blend of light and somewhat dark. Jack and his island are whimsical, but something terrible had happened that made Jack stop writing. Jack’s fellow island resident, a book illustrator named Hugo, is amusing because of his grumpiness. And the story is populated with quirky secondary characters.

On the heavier side, Christopher is traumatized by the death of his parents, Lucy is holding onto childhood memories of parents who neglected her emotionally, and even cranky Hugo has something sad in his past. These heavier topics prevent The Wishing Game from being too fluffy.

I was a little disappointed that the contest itself wasn’t more well-developed – I love a good puzzle – but ultimately that isn’t really what the story and the contest are about. The four contestants came to the island when they were kids because the promise of Clock Island was better than what they were facing at home. Jack wanted to help them address the past so they could move on. It was a form of therapy with a quirky twist from a children’s author.

As for the narration, it’s terrific, and I suspect the reader had a lot of fun doing the different voices and accents, especially the Billy Idol-like accent for Hugo.

If you’ve read The Wishing Game, I’d love to hear your thoughts!