#936 Be Careful What You Wish For by R.L. Stine

Be Careful What You Wish For by R.L. Stine

Sam is taller than anyone else in her class. It’s embarrassing. She’s also clumsy. People think that because she’s tall she can play basketball, but she’s not very good at that. A girl named Judith constantly makes fun of Sam by calling her Stork and doing other mean things.

It’s just about too much. One day while walking home from school, Sam meets up with a strange woman asking what direction a certain road is. Sam helps her out. The woman says she will grant Sam three wishes for being so helpful. Sam doesn’t really take this seriously, but wishes she were the strongest player on the basketball team.

At the next game Sam realizes that she’s not any better, but everyone else is worse. They lose horribly. The rest of the team members get sicker and weaker. They all have to stay home from school.

The mysterious woman appears again and Sam makes another wish, that doesn’t turn out well. For Sam’s third wish, she wishes that everything was back to normal, except that Judith would think Sam was the greatest person ever. Well, that was a mistake.

What I liked

No matter how cheesy all of these stories are, we do have to be careful what we wish for. It’s just a fact of life. We may want something and we may get that something somehow, but that something never turns out the way we had envisioned it. Maybe it’s better. Maybe it’s just different. Maybe it’s horrendous and awful and the worst thing ever to grace our lives. The fact of the matter is that nothing ever turns out the way we day-dreamed that it would.

While this story is silly, I do find that it’s a good story for children to learn from. Sure, maybe they do wish that their entire family would disappear, but then burglars would come and try to rob their house because the entire family is gone and they have to defend everything with BB guns and a tarantula–extra credit points if you know what this story line is from.

What I didn’t like

I hate that kids make fun of each other and bully each other. I went through more than my fair share of what as a child and I know plenty of other people who also endured it. This girl, Judith, isn’t just being a bratty little kid, she’s being insanely cruel. I don’t even know what you’re supposed to do with kids like that. Send them to the corner for forever?

There is a part of me that sometimes thinks we should gather up all the toxic people in our lives and send them to an island to live by themselves. I might send Judith there, along with one or two other people I know.

Overall

If you encounter a strange person who offers you wishes, it might be a good idea not to wish anything. You might say, “I wish I had a million bucks,” but then your wish is granted and you did have a million bucks, but have since gone bankrupt and the IRS is after you for back taxes.