Review of The Wishing Garden

[Damian Keyes]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Wishing Garden" by Derma McGann.]

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5 out of 5 stars

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All Colby wants is a puppy, so he asks his mother for one. His mother informs him that the only way to get his wish granted is to write his wish down and plant it in their garden. After many days and days of waiting for his wish to come true, a puppy shows up. The Wishing Garden follows the relationship between Colby and his new pup, Riley.

Derma McGann is the author of this entertaining, yet informative tale between a boy and his four-legged, energetic companion. I love that this story is unlike any children’s book I’ve read because it progresses through the years and you get to see Riley and Colby mature together. The love these two have for one another shows as they go to the vet, Colby’s baseball game, and many other places. Everything is not peachy-keen in this book because with old age comes one’s mortality. The ending has this beautiful full-circle moment that I will not spoil. You’ll just have to get the book to find out what it is.

This book introduces death in a way that takes the sting out of losing someone you truly love. I recommend parents who have kids that love their pets should get this book. The Wishing Garden will make it easier for its young readers to deal with deaths in their real life after they see how this individual in the book handles it. If you are a parent and rather not inform your child about death at a young age, then I would not recommend you get this book.

Kids love children's books like this one because of the visually stunning pictures. Haley Marshall did the illustrations; her work is superb. If this was a picture book, then I could understand the story with just the emotions and facial expressions Haley drew.

I’m giving this book 4 out of 4 stars. I loved everything story-wise about this book. I found only two easily fixable grammar and syntax errors. Because of these errors, I cannot say the book is exceptionally well-edited, but it is professionally well-edited. I’m glad that I found a children's book that speaks to the reality that many people who have animals have to deal with. There's nothing I disliked about this story. If I were to rate The Wishing Garden on a 5-point rating scale, then I would give it 5 out of 5 stars.

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The Wishing Garden
View: on Bookshelves

[Kirsi Cultrera]

This sounds like a wonderful book. The sad reality is that pets tend to have shorter lives than humans, so loosing them at some point is something to think of before we even decide to take a pet. The story of Colby and Riley sounds heart-warming. Thank you for the lovely review!