"You know the thing about magic, Charlie? We can wish on clovers and shooting stars and ice flowers all we want. But in the end, the only real magic is what's inside us and the people we love. Some things are beyond even that magic."On this unusually quiet and uneventful Saturday afternoon, I have just finished the last pages of Kate Messner's newest book The Seventh Wish. This is a book that has been on my radar for months, and I am finding it hard to put into words the plethora of emotions I am feeling as I close it.
Back in June, I heard reports that a librarian had rescinded her invitation for Kate Messner to speak to students at her school. You can read Messner's blog post about it here. I find it completely unfathomable that anyone would keep this book out of the hands of children. In fact, children are the ones that NEED to read it.
The Seventh Wish is about Charlie, a typical middle-school-aged girl who has a close family and loves Irish dancing. One day, Charlie goes ice fishing with her neighbor and his grandmother, where she catches a quite unusual fish - one with emerald eyes who offers to grant her a wish if she throws him back. Not believing what is happening, Charlie makes a wish to see if there is any truth to it. Her wish comes true, but not necessarily the way she had hoped. She continues going back to the same fishing spot and makes more wishes, all of which come true but in convoluted ways. Just when she starts to think that maybe her wishes are causing more trouble than good, Charlie's sister Abby has some complications in her own life and starts down a path that Charlie struggles to understand. Charlie quickly finds out that all the wishes in the world can't change what is happening to her sister and her family.
In the midst of a story about friendship, family, and usual middle grade worries, Messner has expertly and tastefully written about addiction in a way that is both relevant and appropriate for upper elementary to middle grade readers. She has included all of the typical tween worries - friends, boys, extracurricular activities, family - with a touch of magic that creates a scenario that is just the tiniest bit outside the realm of possibility to make it feel real. The way in which she handles the topic of addiction is both realistic and gentle, yet it is not the sole focus of the book that runs deep with other themes.
According to the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, one in ten Americans is addicted to alcohol and drugs. The children sitting in our classrooms have probably encountered someone with an addiction at some point in their lives, and if they haven't, they probably will. What better way to help them understand and process this very real sickness than through literature? Addiction is real. It affects everyone involved, and it will for a lifetime. There are children that sit in my classroom every day that I know need to read this book. There are children all across the country that need to read this book. They need to hear these words, over and over:
"'There's nothing you can do when someone you love is an addict. So you just...' She shrugs. 'You keep living. And do other stuff.'"I wish this book had been around when I was in middle school. I wish I had had a teacher that handed it to me, urging me to read it so I could feel a little less alone. Growing up with someone who has an addiction is draining. It is so hard for children to understand, and sometimes it seems like life is full of one broken promise after another. Charlie and Abby's story on the pages of this book was so heartfelt and real, I found myself tearing up with recognition of all of the emotions they were feeling.
Toward the end of the book, Abby describes addiction in a way that is so straightforward and true, defining it in a way that is often extremely difficult for children or those outside the addiction to even begin to understand:
"That's the whole thing with addiction, Charlie. And it's the worst thing in the whole world. Knowing that you want to promise and never, ever hurt the people you love again. And knowing that the addiction is bigger than you, bigger than love, bigger than everything. If I made that promise, I'd be lying. And I'm not going to do that."Who are we, as adults, to deny children the opportunity to read a book because it deals with an issue that is mature, yet very real in their lives? We can never tell which book will be the one that changes a child's life. Books that are relevant to children's lives are the ones to which they need access. They need to read about characters that they can believe in and that can give them hope in some of life's most difficult situations.
The Seventh Wish spoke to my heart, and I wholeheartedly believe that it belongs on classroom and library shelves everywhere. Children need to read about tough subjects. Adults may feel uncomfortable discussing them with children, but isn't it better to provide children with a safe place for them to glean understanding and feel less alone? Children often experience these tough subjects in their everyday lives, and by censoring the books that explore them so eloquently, we are robbing them of feelings of connection and humanity. Children need to know that they are not alone in their experiences, especially when they are at such a critical age of development. While every book may not be right for every child, books such as this one are right for many children, and they deserve to be on our shelves so those children can discover them.
