Make A Wish

After she stopped sniffling, Lucy realized she’d have to call Serena and tell her it was very likely no one was coming to their party at all. So much for their exciting summer. And that they’d have to write total and complete failure as the first entry in their own summer diary. Maybe with such a terrible beginning Serena wouldn’t think that their summer diary adventures looked fun at all. Or worth doing together anymore.

Book: Make a Wish (Hidden Diary) by Sandra Byrd, Bethany House Publishers, 2001

 (Paperback)    (E-book of Books #1 & 2)  (Paper back of books #1-4)

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Target Audience:  Girls 11-14

Subjects: Friendship, Parent relationships, Prayer, Faith

Summary: A birthday party? Is Serena nuts? Lucy doesn’t know the other girls on the island very well at all and what she does know of them is that they are all friends with Julie – who has made it quite clear that you are risking your place in her circle of friends if you try to hang out with Lucy. If that wasn’t bad enough, it turns out that another birthday party is scheduled for the same day! Lucy just knows no one is going to come. She believes her suspicions confirmed when a note shows up at her door telling her to call off the party!

Notes: Make A Wish is the second in the Hidden Diary series. The series tells of two twelve year old girls on an island for the summer. One is a local, the other has parents doing projects for their jobs while on the island. When the girls find a hidden diary they pledge to read a section a week and do the same kind of adventure the girls from long ago wrote about.

In this second book the girls begin their first adventure. The original friends wrote about a party in their diary so Serena decides they should have a birthday party for Lucy. This causes a focus on what it means to be friends with someone and how to make friends. It also continues to develop the relationship between Lucy and her parents as, with their newly rediscovered faith, they start trying to be more involved in Lucy’s life – something lacking during the time of their separation.

The spiritual emphasis in this book shows Lucy reaching out just a little bit more into the Christianity that she left a few years ago. She visits a church and questions whether or not she belongs there. A teenage girl assures Lucy that she is welcome and that if she is “looking” then the church is exactly where she belongs. Lucy realizes she belongs to Jesus, even though she walked away years ago.

Spiritual Content Recommendation Scale: 4/5

Reviewer:  J:-)mi

James 4:8 - Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.