Just One Wish by Janette Rallison

 

I always love to read Young Adult novels despite the fact that I am long past qualifying for that age moniker. I enjoyed the Harry Potter books as much as my children did. A Wrinkle in Time is a favorite, and one summer I read everything I could find at the library by its author Madeleine L'Engle. There is something fresh about authors who write for the young and young at heart. And considering they are in competition with video games and movies on demand, these authors have to bring a lot to the table to stay in the game.

I discovered Janette Rallison two years ago when I read her book My Fair Godmother. Her characters were so believable and the plot so exciting, I read it in one sitting. My Fair Godmother wasn’t her first book by any stretch of the imagination. Rallison is the author of more than ten YA books. Most recently My Double Life which was lately spotlighted in Seventeen Magazine, and is on my must read list for the summer.

Just One Wish is a story of seventeen year old Annika Truman’s quest to fill the wish of her younger brother Jeremy who has cancer. Jeremy wants to meet Robin Hood from the hit TV series Teenage Robin Hood and Annika has less than a week to make it happen.

With her best friend in tow, Annika heads out to Hollywood to track down Steve Raleigh the hearthrob actor who plays Robin Hood and talk him into return to her home in Henderson, Nevada. She is willing to do just about anything to make her sick little brothers wish come true.

This story is laugh out loud funny, with Annika managing to get herself into and out of some zany situation. Steve is everything one would want in a celebrity heart throb and his Hollywood girlfriend is as superficial and stuck up as any ambitious starlet on Entertainment Tonight.

This is a great read for those both young and old, but would make a particularly fun ‘read-together’ book for a mom and daughter. There’s nothing objectionable and a whole world of great bonding fun perfect for these long summer evenings. I whole heartedly recommend Just One Wish.