Careful What You Wish For

Gr 8 Up–A hi-lo retelling of “The Monkey’s Paw” for the modern teen. Eshana, a bullied 10th grader, stumbles upon a strange fairy-tale–themed website called I-WISH. The creator of the website claims to be able to grant wishes. Eshana’s wishes begin to come true, but they come at a cost. Her personality starts changing, becoming first rude and then cruel. When her final wish puts her family in danger, Eshana learns who her real friends were all along. Narsimhan succeeds at creating a story for teens who are reading at a lower level without infantilizing the content. Although the shortened form necessitates a more simplified story, the characters and concerns ring true for modern teens, some light swearing included. The author reflects her own South Asian heritage in Eshana’s story, which resists the mistaken belief that stories for struggling readers need to remain as culturally and linguistically narrow as possible. The chat room–style website that Eshana discovers reads as a little dated, since most modern teens stick to app-based social media sites, but this throwback isn’t too jarring.