The Wish Giver Chapter Summaries

Four strangers getting reeled into an ominous tent at a church social in their town of Coven Tree is the beginning of “The Wish Giver,” by Bill Brittain. The tent stated that they were selling wishes. In the interior, a mysterious, chubby man, whose name is Thaddeus Blinn, gives each of them a white card with a red dot in the center for a mere fifty cents. Suspicious, all four of them take the cards, and Blinn tells them that they are wish cards. After a few questions, Blinn creepily says, “The wish- one wish only, for each of you- will be granted. None of them knew that that would be the last time they will see him. As a fictional book, Brittain sets the book in a magical town of Coven Tree, somewhere in New England. Brittain is known to write fictional children’s books that focus on magic. This work is a simple read that one can comprehend. Stew Meat, a general store owner, narrates the prologue. In the narration, the “wish giver,” Thaddeus Blinn, travels around selling wishes for fifty cents. Three of the four wishes go to some children: Polly Kemp, Rowena Jervis, and Adam Fiske. Polly is an unpopular, lying schoolgirl who is desperate for attention. Rowena is a humble girl with a huge crush on a traveling salesman. Lastly, Adam is a farm boy who lives on very dry land.

Polly wishes for attention and to hang out with the popular girls, Soon, she starts croaking like a frog uncontrollably which did attract the popular girls and everyone else. Rowena, on the other hand, wished Henry, her crush and a salesman that comes twice a year, to grow roots and stay in town forever. With slight humor, Henry physically grew roots into the ground and became a tree. Lastly, Adam wishes for water for the farm. Unsurprisingly, he floods the whole farm. All of the wishes start a chain reaction of other events which makes their lives more