Stephanie S. Tolan

3rd grader Max is very imaginative. He uses his imagination to escape from his problems (he's bullied at school, his parents have divorced, he doesn't have a dog).

One day Max imagines himself into the Wishworks, where he is promised that the wish he makes will come true in real life. Then the story turns into a version of the old story where the husband and wife get three wishes (the man wishes for a fish and the woman is mad at him so she wishes the fish on the man's nose and then they have to use their last wish to get the fish off the nose) only with a a dog.

It was a little boring for me because it was completely obvious what was going to happen, and lot of the story is taken up with Max's adventure fantasies, which do not contribute much to the story but may be enjoyable for kids who have similar fantasies (fighting dragons and stuff like that).

The black and white illustrations are very nice.… (mehr)

A cute story about an eccentric, creative family and their unschool.

I enjoyed reading about the kids' various curriculum choices, especially those of E.D. I liked her character and that her "special talent" was being organized.

I didn't care for Jake, one of the main characters. His development seemed a little unrealistic to me... then again, this is a children's book, so maybe I'm being too harsh.

The pet parrot who was always swearing was an undesirable (and totally unnecessary) addition to the story. Even though specific curse words were not shared, I think just mentioning profanity will get a kid's mind thinking about which curse words they know - and it's better to put good ideas into their minds.… (mehr)