Ponder: The Wishing Game

I absolutely loved this book! The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer ©2023 is definitely worth five stars in my rating system. Lucy, a 26-year old kindergarten aide at a school in California, wants desperately to adopt a child out of foster care but needs a better income, better living arrangements, and a car to qualify. She learns of a contest being run by her favorite children's book author and she believes winning it will give her the funds she needs to meet the minimum qualifications for adopting seven-year old Christopher. Jack Masterson had published the 65 books in the Clock Island series but has been in seclusion for about 6 years. This contest is his coming out and writing another book. Christopher is enamored with these books and desperately wants another one to be added to the series; Lucy grew up with these books carrying her through trying times. The contestants are by invitation only. Lucy gets an invite. The contest is a series of riddles and games on Clock Island itself where Jack Masterson resides, as does his book illustrator Hugo Reese. Clock Island is off the coast of Maine.

I truly liked and became attached to all the characters along with their nuances. The book has the heartstrings tug of a little orphan boy who loves Lucy and yearns for a permanent home. Lucy is a pretty girl next door type who is determined but realistically optimistic. Jack Masterson is a somewhat gruff but lovable gentle type, like Mr. Rogers, attuned to children and their heartfelt wishes. Jack and his artist associate Hugo Reese have a close loyal relationship. Typically, Hugo scowls outwardly, but smiles inwardly.

As for the setting, the contest and most of the actions occur on Clock Island. The riddles are fun, thought provoking, and "figure-outable". The playful environment and tense challenges only enhance the reading experience. The paintings by Hugo, as described, are totally awesome and whimsical; they definitely conjure up detailed images in my mind. 

The entire book is endearing without being saccharine. Along with wishes, a parallel theme is fears and facing them. For more enticing details, check out https://www.megshaffer.com/. This is Meg Shaffer's debut novel and I cannot wait for her next one to come out in 2024.

★★★★★ Great! Read it.

Ponder: Starling House

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow ©2023 is an eerie read that I would rate A+ for spooky ambience and C+ for logical plot lines. The characters are well portrayed. The town of Eden, Kentucky is a coal town, familiar in its not atypical rich/poor bifurcation. The wealthy family of Gravely dominates, having earned its money by exploiting labor in the coal mines and disrespecting the poor. Per the front flap of the book

Opal is a lot of things―orphan, high school dropout, full-time cynic and part-time cashier―but above all, she's determined to find a better life for her younger brother Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive nineteenth century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago.

My reasons for the low grade in plot is that the intriguing storyline is revealed gradually throughout the course of the book as more information is disclosed. This lack of transparency made it difficult for me to see where the story was going. Even at the end, I was unclear on where it had been. But I was enjoying the suspense of the spooky ride.

Another dominant family name in the book is Starling. A house that is passed down through the generations of Starlings has a life of its own, morphing similarly to the Halls of Hogwarts in Harry Potter. The house has favorites. It likes Opal who is working hard to clean it after years of neglect. The sole current Starling in residence, Arthur, is a Heathcliff type character.

With the book title including "starling", and especially with the cover art, I thought Alix E. Harrow missed a grand opportunity for more eeriness by failing to utilize the mesmerizing sensation evoked by a flock of starlings as they wheel in synchronous flight through the skies in a pattern called murmurations, shown in this two minute YouTube video from National Geogrpahic. Eerie... huh?

Per an All About Birds website for the European Starling

All the European Starlings in North America descended from 100 birds set loose in New York's Central Park in the early 1890s. The birds were intentionally released by a group who wanted America to have all the birds that Shakespeare ever mentioned. It took several tries, but eventually the population took off. Today, more than 200 million European Starlings range from Alaska to Mexico, and many people consider them pests.

Starling House was a bit slow moving to start but I am glad I stuck with it. It was spooky and eerie without resorting to being a horror novel. For this restraint I was grateful and rounded my initial rating of three and a half stars up to four stars. It is a Reese's Book Club pick, a reason strong enough for me to pick it and stick with it. "Pick and Stick" kind of sums it up for me.

★★★★☆ Really good; maybe only one weak aspect or limited audience