Ella May and the Wishing Stone by Cary Fagan illustrated by Genevieve Cote

Ella May comes home from the beach with a stone. It seems special because it has a line going all the way around.  She sings a little song:

Wish, wish, I'm making a wish

On my wishing stone.

And it will come true, oh yes it will,

Because I bought you home.

While Ella May is sitting on her porch her best friend Manuel comes past. He invites Ella May to play a game of hopscotch but she says no. Other friends arrive but Ella May will not share her stone so the children go looking for their own. Ella May declares their stone are no good.

"Nope and double nope ... none of your stones has a line going all-all-all the way around it."

Manuel is not defeated. He goes home and returns with a cart and for just one penny he offers to make wishing stones for everyone. The children are so pleased to have their own wishing stones. They make their wishes for a pony and a walk on the moon. Ella May is very put out. She wants her stone to be the only wishing stone. Then it starts to rain and something happens to those stones.

"Once again Ella May was the only one with a wishing stone, but she didn't feel as happy as she thought she would."

Now we have a beautiful plot twist.  Ella May is not defeated. She goes inside her house and comes out with a crate of assorted objects such as a broom which can be transformed into a pony and empty egg cartons which feel just like the lunar surface. Can you guess how the children might now use their stones?

This book is such a discovery for me.  I want to rush out and share Ella May and the Wishing Stone with a group of young children and buy some copies to pop into the library collections of my friends. You can see a video of the whole book here.

One more thing -  as I sat down now to talk about Ella May and the Wishing stone, the cover of Little Blue Chair also by Cary Fagan appeared on the Canadian Children's Book Centre Facebook page. Cary Fagan has written a number of picture books and novels. I previously talked about Wolfie and Fly. I now need to hunt out some more books by Cary Fagan there are sure to be some others just as splendid as Ella May and the Wishing Stone.

Refreshingly, these lessons are not delivered in a didactic or moralistic tone but emerge serendipitously, rather like appearance of the stone, itself. University of Manitoba

The net result is an original and imaginative treatment of one of the hardest lessons of early childhood – sharing – in a colourful package that’s likely to charm kids and adults alike. Quill and Quire

Fagan believably captures the delicate balance of friendship in the very young and lets the story pay out with welcome complexity. Kirkus