Wish

by Matthew Cordell, Matthew Cordell (Illustrator)

Overview

A parent's ode to "anticipatory joy," by Caldecott Award-winner Matthew Cordell. The sweet companion to Dream and Hope.

As an elephant couple embarks on their life together, thoughts of children are far away — at first. But as the desire for a child grows, so do unexpected challenges. And it's only after thwarted plans and bitter disappointment that their deepest wish miraculously comes true. This "deceptively simple" story celebrates the profound joy of becoming a parent.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781484708750
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	03/03/2015
Series:	Wish Series , #1
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	340,703
Product dimensions:	8.60(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	3 - 5 Years

About the Author

Matthew Cordell is the author and illustrator of many celebrated picture books, including Hello, Neighbor!: The Kind and Caring World of Mister Rogers, and Wolf in the Snow, recipient of the 2018 Caldecott Medal. As an illustrator he has collaborated with many more authors including Gail Carson Levine, Philip C. Stead, and Rebecca Kai Dotlich. Matthew lives with his wife, author Julie Halpern, and their two children in suburban Chicago.

Editorial Reviews

The spare words have a timeless feel, but there is also something strikingly contemporary in this book…Wish, while having an undeniably mournful tone for long stretches…ends on a joyous note…Cordell's bouncy, frisky yet delicate line drawings, with a recurring motif of a colorful confetti-like stream of dots, are a good match for the material, lightening it up. And yet it's that dark backdraft, that mournfulness, that makes Wish feel unusual, and unusually honest.

The New York Times - Maria Russo

01/05/2015
Cordell’s (Rooting for You) intensely personal account of parents awaiting the arrival of a child bubbles over with anticipatory joy. He draws, in his loopy pen-and-ink style, two elephants who live in a house by the ocean. Their new baby sets sail toward them from a tropical island, and they build a boat of their own to meet the baby. At sea, they send forth a beam of rainbow-colored love, but something goes wrong: “We listen.... And we wait... but you never come. And everything stops.” A poignant spread shows the elephants embracing on the deck of their boat under the stars, trunks pressed together in disappointment. While adults can read between the lines (many things can go wrong for couples expecting a child), it’s a moment that may call for some explanation and reassurance for younger readers. At last, though, the baby elephant’s boat arrives in triumph: “You are here.” It’s easy for parents to forget to tell their children how much they longed for them to be born; Cordell provides words and pictures to help. Ages 3–5. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

02/01/2015
PreS-Gr 3—An elephant couple is content just being together: living by the sea, traveling, and enjoying their closeness. In the back of their minds is the tiny glimmer of a desire for a child, but the two want to share other experiences before having a baby. Once they decide to expand their family, things do not go as planned and they become discouraged as their longed-for child remains a dream. Softly hued watercolor, pen, and ink illustrations are sweet, revealing the cheerfulness of the couple that slowly turns to disappointment and then resignation. Dreams/wishes/prayers are shown in colorful confettilike swirls that diminish in size as their hopes continue to remain unfulfilled and then explode like a sunburst at the satisfying conclusion, showing a baby elephant arriving via boat to the couple after a tumultous storm. The open-ended nature of the text and illustrations make this picture book useful as a general parent-child read-aloud or as a gentle entree into the subject of adoption. VERDICT The heartache and delight revealed in this charming tale will resonate with parents who have experienced similar circumstances.—Maryann H. Owen, Children's Literature Specialist, Mt. Pleasant, WI

School Library Journal

2015-01-10
A much-wanted child arrives as fulfillment of his parents' dearest wish.Neither a where-do-babies-come-from book nor one about sibling adjustment to a new baby, this fanciful treatment of parental longing for a baby seems aimed at adults more than children. The text is delivered in direct address to an unnamed "you" who's at first absent from the would-be parents' lives. Perhaps in an attempt to tilt the story toward child-friendliness, the adults in question are an anthropomorphic elephant couple. As they begin to notice others with babies (birds in a nest, another elephant pushing a stroller), they start to wish, plan, learn and build. Pictures eschew crib-assembly or other traditional baby-planning preparations to show the couple building a boat and setting sail, as if for some island cabbage patch where they might find an elephant's child. In a poignant twist, the journey doesn't immediately fulfill their baby wish, and they return home saddened but resilient. When a baby does arrive, suddenly parting the seas like a tiny pachyderm Moses in a sailboat, the parents are thrilled that their baby is "HERE." The metaphorical use of boats and journeying to find a baby could lend itself to interpretations of the story as an adoption narrative, but this isn't clearly indicated. Instead, cartoony art and spare text alike are most concerned with communicating longing and love. Wish fulfilled, if a tad inscrutably. (Picture book. 3-5)

Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Wish:

"This deceptively simple picture book packs an emotional wallop. [...] Readers of all ages will appreciate the combined messages of affirmation, hope, and reassurance."—Booklist

"Cordell's [...] intensely personal account of parents awaiting the arrival of a child bubbles over with anticipatory joy."—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher