Lu-Lu’s Wish (Matt Zurbo, illus. Ben de Quadros-Wander, Lothian, $28.99 hb, ISBN 9780734410177, July) ***

I am in two minds about this book; the words of the blurb describe it as ‘a whimsical tale of hope and a little girl who wanted something more’, indicating the essence of the storyline, and yet I found it hard to find any clear purpose to the story, even after several readings. Lu-Lu is introduced to the reader as ‘somewhere between the ages of eight and ten’ and, although she appears to be an otherwise normal and happy child, she feels something is dreadfully missing in her life as she is unable to do anything special, at least compared with others around her. Her resolve is ‘to be able to make something’, and the story essentially follows her attempts over a period of weeks, then months, until she discovers that the small piece of rock she has been carrying around as her ‘wishing rock’, has in fact turned itself into a perfect heart shape—as a result of all her wishing and hoping. The illustrations are a mixture of styles, sometimes almost comic-like and sometimes with a softer and more old-fashioned feel to them, and although they complement the narrative well, perhaps what is missing is a more compelling story.

Hilary Adams works in a specialist children’s bookshop in Sydney and is a freelance reviewer and writer

This review from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2008, Thorpe-Bowker

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