Book: “The Wish and the Peacock” by Wendy S. Swore
Publisher: Shadow Mountain Publishing
Release Date: February 4, 2020
Synopsis
Paige’s favorite family tradition on the farm is the annual bonfire where everyone tosses in a stone and makes a wish. This time, Paige’s specific wish is one she’s not sure can come true: Don’t let Mom and Grandpa sell the farm.
When Paige’s younger brother finds a wounded peacock in the barn, Paige is sure it’s a sign that if she can keep the bird safe, she’ll keep the farm safe too. Peacocks, after all, are known to be fierce protectors of territory and family.
With determination and hard work, Paige tries to prove she can save the farm on her own, but when a real estate agent stakes a “For Sale” sign at the end of the driveway and threatens everything Paige loves, she calls on her younger brother and her best friends, Mateo and Kimana, to help battle this new menace. They may not have street smarts, but they have plenty of farm smarts, and some city lady who’s scared of spiders should be easy enough to drive away.
But even as the peacock gets healthier, the strain of holding all the pieces of Paige’s world together gets harder. Faced with a choice between home and family, she risks everything to make her wish come true, including the one thing that scares her the most: letting the farm go.
[Synopsis from Goodreads]The Wish and the Peacock REVIEW
I grew up on a farm. I was a city girl, doomed to a childhood on a farm and I hated every single second of it. When I turned 18, I could not wait to get as far away as possible from that place.
Reading this book, I can tell you I was nothing like Paige. She is a 12-year old girl completely running a farm mostly by herself. That’s all she cares about is running the farm. If people help her, good. If they don’t, she’s okay with it, because she’s still going to do it. But try to stop her from doing her work and that person has got another thing coming. This is her life and she’s passionate about her farm.
A lot of Paige’s passion in running the farm has a lot to do with a promise she made to her father before he died. It was the last thing she said to him. She would take care of the farm. A year after his death, her family is facing foreclosure on the property.
While a real estate agent and a strange journalist poke around the farm, Paige and her brother Scotty (along with her two friends) try to sabotage the sale. Business men want the acreage. They don’t care about the farm. But Paige and her family want the farm to go to farmers, because once the industry comes in, the world will never get that farmland back.
While all of this is going on, Scotty discovers a peacock hiding out in their barn. The bird is injured, but it trusts these two kids to take care of it. When the journalist starts asking them if they’ve seen this peacock, they lie, because they have no idea what this man wants with the exotic bird. It’s obvious the bird ran away from something. Maybe it ran because it was running from a bad situation. They don’t know, but they will do anything to protect that bird.
This story will make anyone (including this city girl) appreciate the farm life and what Paige is doing to keep her family’s farm running. She really makes all of this look easy. From fixing motorcycles and riding tractors, laying down pipes to birthing a cow, this girl does it all. She’ll make you appreciate this life she’s so passionate about.
It is an excellent read. My heart just warmed to their situation. It almost made me want to buy a farm…and then I thought…nah, I’m not Paige. But I do appreciate what she taught me in this book.
I read Wendy S. Swore’s A Monster Like Me, and I really enjoyed that book. But this one, I think I love more. Definitely a great read for those who love YA.
[Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher for review purposes. This post contains affiliate links.]You can get your copy of “The Wish and the Peacock” by clicking on any of these PW approved retailers below.
