Wishes and Wellingtons, by Julie Berry (Sourcebooks, October 2020, first published as an Audible Original in 2018), is a middle grade fantasy in the tradition of E. Nesbit that will delight anyone who loves reading about feisty girls finding magic and struggling to control it!
Maeve wants to be a world-famous cricket player, or perhaps an explorer, or both, but Victorian England isn't offering her many opportunities for either. For the moment she stuck at a boarding school for "Upright Young Ladies," and when the book begins, she's being made to sort through the trash as punishment for her latest transgression against the rules of upright young lady-ship.
But fortune smiles on her (perhaps) when she finds a sardine tin in which a djinni has been trapped. The power of magical wishes is hers...but she only has three of them, and the djinni isn't going to help her make the best use of them. On the contrary...
Though Maeve wastes her first wish on a silly bit of revenge against another girl, she is fortunate to have two more level headed allies--an orphan boy from the adjacent charitable home (who hopes to get his own chance with the sardine tin), and her best friend Alice, a girl from a wealthy family who's quieter personality makes her good foil for Maeve.
The three of them use Maeve's second wish to take them on an adventure in search of treasure--and they find themselves in the ancestral home of the djinni himself! It's a place of curses and angry spirits, and needless to say it doesn't make them rich. With only one wish left, how will Maeve foil the plotting of a powerful business man who's found out about the sardine tin djinn, and make a better future for herself and her friends?
It's touch and go, but she does it, and I was happy to cheer her own!
I myself am a big fan of Nesbit (The Phoenix and the Carpet and The Story of the Amulet in particular, despite the discomfort of some racist and classist elements typical of their time), and of Edward Eager, who follows in her footsteps with stories of kids finding magic (with much less for modern readers to object to), and then figuring out its rules. Maeve obviously hasn't read these books, and it takes her a while to really think things through. The evil business man, who threatens Maeve's family, gives her a worthwhile foe, and it's lots of fun to watch him getting his comeuppance! I was a bit disappointed that the djinni didn't get more of a redemption arc, but you can't have everything.
A great read if you are in the mood for a light historical fantasy romp that's lots of fun! I dunno if kids these days ever read Nesbit and Eager, but this would conceivable be a great gateway to her books, and so I endorse it wholeheartedly for that reason as well as for its own sake!
disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher
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Sounds neat! It would be sad if nobody read Nesbit or Eager any more. I read them to my son but he did not love them as much as I do. I handed down my books to my niece (now 3 years old). Fingers crossed that she will take to them.
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