Brittian, Bill (1983). The Wish Giver: Three Tales of Coven Tree. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. Challenged Book
Old Stewart Meade, whose nickname is "Stew Meat," introduces the reader to the strange Thaddeus Blinn, a man who once visited the New England town of Coven Tree in a carnival tent claiming to grant any wish for a mere fifty cents. That is the one and only appearance Blinn makes in the story, but the havoc he leaves behind lasts the entire book!
Young Polly, Rowena, and Adam were in the tent that fateful night with Stew. They each give their money to Blinn and receive a card with a red spot on it, for only 50 cents each. All they have to do is touch the spot with their thumb and make the wish. It seems simple enough...
Polly, who constantly speaks her mind and offends many around her makes her wish with some other specific words to be popular, and those words come to be true exactly as she asks for them! Rowena wants the traveling salesman who visits twice a year and whom she she secretly adores to plant roots in Coven Tree - and he does! And Adam wishes his father's extreme drought problem to be solved by wishing for water and enough of it to spare, so he receives so much water in his father's farm that there is plenty to spare indeed!
When Polly, Rowena, and Adam are at their wits end, they come to their senses for a time and realize that Stew Meat also received a card! They all run to Stew's convenience store and the three clamor for Stew to make a wish to take away their unique problems. Stew's wish sure brings sanity back, but none of the four are left the same at all. Actually, the change is not too bad! Maybe the wishes did them all some good!
Several interesting illustrations by Andrew Glass add a touch of cartoon-ish effect to the already humorous stories and Brittain's four-plots-in-one are so interestingly and masterfully intertwined! The cover is even more humorous once one reads the book! Take a look at Stew again when you finish reading!
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