I read this book ages ago and loved it. It is a great story. I did order it for my library at the time.

I keep reading and trying to like Messner's books. My feelings towards this one are better than for some of her others but fairly standard for middle grade books in general. It's rather predictable. and has a few logical leaps. A solid read, though.

Charlie is a normal middle class girl who loves Irish Dancing, has some good friends, two working parents, a sister starting college, fear of deep water and some upcoming issues that are pretty tough to deal with. She would like to move up to higher levels of competition, but doing so requires a lot of dedication and resources. She finds out that she can make money by going fishing and selling her catch to the local bar owner. When she is out fishing with her neighbor, Drew, and his grandmother, Mrs. O'Neill, Charlie hears a fish whom she has caught speaking to her, saying that it will grant her a wish if she releases him. What Charlie finds out though is that wishes do not always turn out the way she wants them to. One thing she does wish for is that the fear of deep water will disappear and that seems to happen. She wishes for things to happen to her friends, her mother and her sister. Things get more serious, however, when her sister's heroin addiction is discovered. The parents manage to get her into a program, and Charlie has to spend her Saturdays visiting Abby at the facility-- and lying to her friends about it. She wants to be supportive of her sister, but also wants to keep advancing with her dancing. Will wishes make everything right or is the issue her sister is dealing with beyond wishing away. This is a modern day fairy tale with a message. Some things take hard work and support to happen. There are some difficult issues in this book but I would not hesitate to recommend it to teachers of older students (gr. 6 to 9). The publisher generously provided me with a copy of this book via Netgalley.