The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer (2023)

 

Debut author Meg Shaffer has written a truly entertaining book about the power of reading and hope. Lucy Hart, a teacher’s aide, knows what it is like to grow up with parents who don’t love her. She sought and found solace in the Clock Island books authored by Jack Masterson, excerpts of which appear throughout her story. Adult Lucy wishes more than anything to have the finances necessary to foster and adopt seven-year-old orphan Christopher Lamb, a student she has taken under her wing and shared the gift of reading. Together they’ve read all of the Clock Tower books and one of their favorite things to do is play the wishing game introduced in the Clock Island books.

Jack Masterson lives on the actual Clock Island in Maine, along with his grumpy but handsome illustrator Hugo Reese. When Jack writes his first book in five years, he decides to hold a contest on Clock Island with the prize being the one and only copy of the manuscript. Lucy is thrilled to be one of the four chosen contestants; if she could win the manuscript, life for her and Christopher would change dramatically.

The book, reminiscent of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Harry Porter, will make you laugh, cry, and jump for joy. The characters are complex, yet loveable. The description of the island, the riddles and games in the story show off the powerful imagination of the author. This is one of the best books I have read in a good while.

 4.28 stars on Goodreads, 4.5 on Amazon