SuitabookWishes Come in Threes
Andy Jones
- Reading
- Read alongside the child if family depression, relocation or bullying may feel close to home. Pause after Phyll meets Mr Djinn to consider belief, and leave time afterwards for the unresolved ending.
- Themes
- Living with a parent’s depression: Phyll is trying to understand her mother’s depression while the family relocates and her mother’s condition changes from day to day. The treatment is described as sympathetic and realistic about fluctuation, without presenting magic as a cure.
- Change, friendship and self-confidence: Phyll moves home and school, encounters hostility from Hilda, and develops supportive relationships with Clark and Mr Djinn. Friendship, encouragement and growing self-confidence are presented as meaningful supports during upheaval.
- Belief, wishes and appearances: Mr Djinn claims to be a genie, discusses wishes with Phyll and becomes a trusted mentor; apparent family stability is also shown to be misleading. The book invites philosophical reflection rather than confirming a straightforward fantasy explanation; its ending is explicitly enigmatic.
- Worth knowing
- Be ready to discuss depression, a move prompted by the family situation, loneliness, bullying and dog thefts. The story also includes an older care-home resident whose claims about being a genie remain deliberately uncertain.