The Winter Wish

This joyful celebration of words and wishes is set in a bookshop. Where else? William has grown up in his parents’ bookshop, indeed, when we meet him, he’s ‘six years old and thirty-seven books tall.’ The shop is stocked and ready for the Christmas rush but it’s at the end of the street, and the busy townsfolk don’t stop to browse as they rush to their homes. When his mum warns the shop might have to close, William takes action. First, with his dog Rufford at his side, he gathers sticks and foliage and creates a wonderful window display with a reindeer named Bracken as a centre piece. Lovely as it is, it still doesn’t pull people in, and that’s when the real magic happens … As Bracken miraculously becomes real, she takes William and Rufford flying through the night sky in her sleigh. Soaring over the town, she encourages William to shout out all the shiniest words he knows, because, ‘Words can be magic.’ Sure enough, the town is transformed and sparkles like never before. Now, on Christmas Eve, the people pour into Words of Wonder, and the shop is saved. A wonderful story of Christmas excitement and adventure, this picture book stands out too for its hopeful, positive message, that we all have magic inside us, and all we need to unlock it is the right approach, and the right words.