THE SEVENTH WISH, by Kate Messner

The story: When Charlie catches a magic fish that grants wishes, it's not long before she's back at the fishing hole again...and again. Her wishes seem to help at first--but then they go sideways, and somehow they've made things even worse than when she started. Can Charlie figure out how to solve her problems without magic? It doesn't seem very likely...

June Cleaver's ratings: Language PG; Violence G; Sexual content G; Nudity G; Substance abuse PG-13; Magic & the occult PG; GLBT content G; adult themes (addiction) PG; overall rating PG.

Liz's comments: I liked this story a lot, but found it to be a very strange juxtaposition of whimsical magic fish/wish granting and the difficulties of dealing with an older sibling's addiction. Messner does a good job of showing the neglected child's anger as parents deal with putting out the older sister's fires, and she also shows that wishing for life to get better--and having those wishes granted--just leads to more complications. I'd say the audience here is grades 5-7; Charlie is a 6th grader, but her older sister's problems would resonate with older readers...if they can get past the magic, wish-granting fish.