The Wish Giver

The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree is a 1983 book by Bill Brittain. The "wish giver" in the title refers to the enigmatic man who gives three children a wish to make their deepest dreams come true. However, in typical Faust fashion, the wishes are not worded carefully, and go horribly awry.

The Wish Giver was the recipient of a Newbery Honor citation in 1984.

Plot summary

The narrator Stewart Meade (nicknamed "Stew Meat"), meets a strange man named Thaddeus Blinn in a carnival tent. However, he notices something unusual about Blinn: his eyes glow like a cat's momentarily, implying that he is not really human.

Stew Meat sees that there are three children in the tent who he recognizes as Polly, Rowena, and Adam. Blinn sells each of them a card with a red spot on it, for only 50 cents each, explaining that all they have to do is to press their finger on the red spot and say their wish and it will come true – exactly as they tell it.

Polly, a sharp-tongued girl whose habit of speaking her mind freely has left her with few friends, makes a wish on her card to be popular. She says that she wants people to smile at her on the street, and also for the two most popular girls at her school to invite her over to their house. The wish comes true, but in a completely unexpected manner – Polly is cursed to croak like a bull frog whenever she says something rude or spiteful to other people. Only when she has not made any complaints or insults for a while does the croaking subside temporarily. (Jug-A-Rum!)

This curse causes her entire wish to be granted; her sudden croaking in the middle of class causes her to become the center of attention – and much grins and guffaws – at her school, and the two girls she had wished to invite her over do so, if only to ridicule her for her croaking. Polly is grateful for the invitation, but learns during her visit that the girls are snobbish and unlikable people. She realizes that if she had not spoken whispers to her classmates, she could have easily become friends with them.

Rowena makes a wish of her own for Henry Piper, a traveling salesman she is infatuated with, but can only see three days a time, to "set roots down in Coven Tree and never leave again!" The wish is fulfilled word-for-word: Henry's feet become literally rooted to the ground, and he gradually transforms into a sycamore tree. Much like Polly does, Rowena learns something important from her wish's consequences; a frustrated Henry reveals to her that he never actually liked her, and only flirted with her so that her father would buy more of his items and that most of his travels to exotic locations were taken from brochures rather than genuinely travelling to the places. Rowena also grows close to Sam, a boy who works for her parents, as they search for a cure to Henry's condition. Later Rowena discovers she has been in love with Sam for a long time.

Adam, who lives in a farm that receives little water, wishes for the farm to be filled with water so that his family would not have to work so hard to get water all the time. The next day, a friend of his father, who is a dowser, teaches him how to use a divining rod to locate water. Adam tries this method, and finds that his rod jumps at every spot on the farm. When they dig through the soil, a huge geyser shoots out. At first, Adam's parents are joyful of this newfound source of water, but the waterspout soon grows out of control, flooding the entire farm.

The three independent stories each end with the involved child being reminded in some way of the fourth wish card Stew Meat has, and all three of them running to his store. Stew Meat wishes on his card for their wishes to be undone, and without any of the repercussions or side effects that they suffered. Polly's voice returns to normal, Henry turns back into a human, and the water on Adam's farm stops flowing.