Complex relationships, real family struggles, coming of age, and a bright dose of real magic mixed in…
Lauren Myracle (awesome last name, huh?) has written a trilogy, Wishing Day Series. I’ve read it over the past couple of weeks and really enjoyed it. They are books that push the borders of book categorization.
The Wishing Day Series
The three books are titled: Wishing Day, The Forgetting Spell, and The Backward Season
“J” Books?
In my library, they are catalogued as “J” books, which would put them in middle-grade reader section, for ages 8 or 9 to 12. The age of the protagonists match that category, with each of three sisters featured as she goes through her “Wishing Day”—the third day of the third month after a girl’s 13th birthday.
But the emotional complexity—the tangle of emotions each girl is suffering, really, feels a lot more like YA (young adult) literature to me. In fact, many of Ms. Myracle’s popular books are YA books. As I said, a category-stretcher.
Summary:
Three sisters live in a town where on the third day of the third month of her 13th year, every kid makes three wishes: an impossible wish, a wish that she can make come true, and her deepest wish.
YA vs. Middle-Grade
I can’t exactly say why middle grade books often feel more straight-forward to me than YA (Young Adult) books. It isn’t that the subject matter is limited, or that the characters aren’t capable of great emotion.
I think there is just something that happens in teenage years—I remember my own experience as often conflicted. Nothing seemed simple or clear. There were pros and cons and figuring out the way forward was often not an easy task—not as much from external obstacles, as perceived internal ones.
Whether that’s correct or not, it’s my own description of the shift from middle-grade to YA books. That, and the increased focus on girl-boy relationships. The clearest delineation often comes in the age of the protagonist—usually 16 or 17 instead of 12 or 13.
Strengths of Wishing Day Series
This series is absorbing, emotionally engaging, a terrific rendering of three sisters, and of growing up with an absent mother. It’s also imaginative—especially the way the third book unsnarls and attends to the multi-layered problems set of over the series! Very creative. Each book packs a punch and has a twist to it.
For a 13-years-going on 17years kind of book, The Wishing Day Series by Lauren Myracle is a must-read!
sounds like a winning read. Will investigate. Thanks.