The Wish and the Peacock by Wendy S. Swore -- Review

About the Book

​Paige’s favorite family tradition on the farm is the annual bonfire where everyone tosses in a stone and makes a wish. This time, Paige’s specific wish is one she’s not sure can come true: Don’t let Mom and Grandpa sell the farm.

When Paige’s younger brother finds a wounded peacock in the barn, Paige is sure it’s a sign that if she can keep the bird safe, she’ll keep the farm safe too. Peacocks, after all, are known to be fierce protectors of territory and family.

With determination and hard work, Paige tries to prove she can save the farm on her own, but when a real estate agent stakes a “For Sale” sign at the end of the driveway and threatens everything Paige loves, she calls on her younger brother and her best friends, Mateo and Kimana, to help battle this new menace. They may not have street smarts, but they have plenty of farm smarts, and some city lady who’s scared of spiders should be easy enough to drive away.

But even as the peacock gets healthier, the strain of holding all the pieces of Paige’s world together gets harder. Faced with a choice between home and family, she risks everything to make her wish come true, including the one thing that scares her the most: letting the farm go.

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About the Author

​Wendy S. Swore and her family are farmers. She writes part-time, particularly in winter when her farming chores give her time to plant seeds in her imagination. She is a member of SCBWI. She was named the Idaho Farm Bureau District 1 Woman of the Year in 2018.

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Review

This story is about change. And how change is not easy. It's about having a dream. But sometimes our dreams can change and we have to let go of old ones to pursue the new ones. It's about moving forward in life after a loss of a loved one, even when it's hard. This story was a bit hard to get into, as the pacing didn’t seem to flow the same from beginning to end.  The story also seemed to be stretched out to three hundred pages.
 
Genre: children’s, middle grade, fiction
Publisher: Shadow Mountain
Publication date: February 4, 2020
Number of pages: 304
 
Disclosure statement: A complimentary review copy of this book was provided from tour groups, publishers, publicists, and authors, including NetGalley, OR was borrowed from the library, including OverDrive, Or borrowed from Kindle Unlimited OR pre-ordered/purchased for review.  A review was not required and all views and opinions expressed are my own.