ACCESS DIGITIZED EDITION
Guide/Reviews Database
YOUNGER FICTION
Henkes, Kevin

Billy Miller Makes a Wish

192 pp. | Greenwillow | April, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-06-304279-7 $16.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-0-06-304281-0 $8.99
(1) 1-3 When Billy Miller fell on his head at the beginning of The Year of Billy Miller (rev. 9/13), he worried about forgetting things and whether he was smart enough for second grade. In this welcome sequel, school is over for the year and Billy is a "second-and-a-half grader" now worrying about his eighth birthday wish. Fearing a long, boring summer, he'd wished for excitement. But "excitement" comes in the form of an ambulance arriving at his neighbor's house, and when Mr. Tooley dies, Billy thinks maybe his wish was responsible. Then there's a bat in the basement, a chimney fire, and his younger sister, Sal, tattooing her legs with his special birthday markers. And why is his mother so tired all the time? Billy must also put up with Sal, who is almost four, and he doesn't always find her as amusing as readers will. In fact, he wonders "how long big brothers had to suffer because of their little sisters." Henkes is a master of characterization, deftly using dabs of telling details to build his characters (Sal, for instance, with her collection of whale-shaped erasers she calls the Drip Sisters, the "symphony cards" she makes for Mr. Tooley's family, the birthday present she wrapped all by herself that looks like "a big ball of crumpled tissue paper"). But when Mama and Papa share exciting news at the end of the story, Billy changes his mind about that wish he had regretted. "Now he wouldn't change it for anything."
Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

RELATED 

YOUNGER FICTION

Fox & Rabbit Celebrate
by Ferry, Beth
YOUNGER FICTION

Popcorn Bob
by Rinck, Maranke
YOUNGER FICTION

Burt the Beetle Doesn't Bite!
by Spires, Ashley
YOUNGER FICTION

The Middle Kid
by Weinberg, Steven
YOUNGER FICTION

Ivy + Bean Get to Work!
by Barrows, Annie
More

Get connected. Join our global community of more than 200,000 librarians and educators.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

We are currently offering this content for free. Sign up now to activate your personal profile, where you can save articles for future viewing.

ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER?