How do such things happen? Something appears, sudden as disaster. It wasn’t there and now it is. An envelope arrives, in your mailbox, on your dinner table, your dresser, your computer keyboard. It’s in your hand. You are alone when it finds you. No one else sees it, to ask about it or take it from you. There is only your name on the envelope.

Inside, two pieces of pale gray tissue paper, each the size of a playing card, and simple instructions:

ONE WISH AT A TIME

WHISPER IT TO ME

BE WISE.

Magic? Impossible. But what if . . . ?

Casey, Zoe, Billy, and Bug live in the same town. They don’t know one another . . . yet. But mysteriously, they are connected by magic. Specifically, they’ve each been given two wishes. What would you wish for?

Casey yearns for a dog. Zoe wants her parents to stop fighting. Billy has always wanted a unicorn. Bug would love a Lego kit, a really complicated one. And do their wishes come true? The answer may surprise you.