I Wish I May, I Wish I Might

In I Wish I May, I Wish I Might, three children, ages eight, ten, and twelve, find a bottle on the beach from which a frog appears, an orange and purple frog with just a tinge of green and yellow across its back. This frog speaks perfectly good English but not a word of Latin, French, Spanish, or Lower Mongolian. He eventually agrees to fetch out his bottle mate who, according to tradition, gives three wishes to children who find the bottle. The genie appears or was all this just the children s imagination? The genie refuses to grant them the traditional three wishes but insists they can have all the WISHES they want, with a few very practical conditions. This leads the children to a series of adventures such as helping their widowed neighbor put on a happy face, getting ill from eating too much ice cream, and confronting counterfeiters/kidnappers. Ann is kidnapped but rescued with the help of the genie. Then Dan is kidnapped, escapes but is lost in a dismal swamp where he faces alligators, rattlesnakes, and bears. With help from the genie, Ann and Dan find a way to rescue him. Through these adventures, the children learn that, although there is nothing particularly magic about WISHES coming true, the world is a much more magical place than they had realized. They convince the genie to allow them to share having all the WISHES they want with all the children of the world. This book is their attempt to explain to all children how they can have their realistic WISHES come true. After all their adventures, Ann is convinced the genie is real, Van isn t sure. He will need a few days or a hundred years to decide. And Dan is certain there is no such thing as a genie except in their imagination. I wish you may; I wish you might, know for sure which one is right!