Best Wishes

Sarah Mlynowski's Best Wishes is a magical friendship story for 10 year olds about a girl whose only wish is for friends. Lots and lots of them.

What happens

Becca is having a truly terrible Monday. Harper, her best friend since kindergarten, tells her in the middle of the playground that she doesn't want to be best friends any more. She'd rather hang out with Georgette, the chess champion who thinks their favourite game is babyish.

Becca's birthday sleepover is on Saturday. Now there's nobody to invite. Oh, and she gets so stressed she comes out in hives. Then she locks herself in the school toilets by accident. For forty-five minutes.

So when a box turns up with her name on it, holding a beaded bracelet and a very old-looking note, she's ready to try anything. The note says to speak one wish. She whispers that she wishes everyone wanted to be her friend.

And they do. The kids who make up dances at lunch ask her to sit with them. Her strict teacher leads the class in three cheers for her homework. Harper comes back asking to be best friends again. Even her mum says yes to pizza on a school night!

(Only the grumpy parrot in the lobby still can't stand her. Some things even magic can't fix.)

Becca tells the whole story in a letter to a girl called Addie, and it's so chatty it's like she's sitting next to you. She's funny and a bit anxious and very honest about how much it hurts to be left out.

What makes it more than a fun wish story is that Becca begins to have doubts. Do they like her, or the bracelet? Is it wrong to use magic to make people be nice to you? And who is the stylish blond woman who offers her fifty dollars for it?

It's probably something we all felt as kids, being the one left behind when a friend moves on. If you've got a reader going through a friendship wobble, this could be really comforting (and quite exciting too).

It's set in New York, so there's American school talk like fifth grade. Becca's family is Jewish, and her big brother is practising for his bar mitzvah.

What to read next

If they love the idea of magic that doesn't quite behave, try Upside-Down Magic, which Sarah Mlynowski wrote with Lauren Myracle and Emily Jenkins. Nory's about to start fifth grade, and when she tries to turn into a kitten she comes out half beaver.