The Three Wishes

by M. Jean Craig, Yuri Saizman

A poor wood-cutter and his wife argue about what to do with the three wishes given to them by a tree fairy

Genres: Picture Books, Fiction, Childrens, Fantasy

32 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1968

Reviews

[Melissa Namba · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good lesson for my nieces and nephews. Don't be too greedy or you will squander what you have. There are other variations of this story, but this is a fun one and I loved the humble ending.

[Benf]

Mommy note- Reading "The Monkey's Paw" in high school made me realize where this book came from!

[Emma Pham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was such a lighthearted and funny book at the same time. In this book, the poor woodcutter man helped a fairy by not chopping down, with that the fairy said she would grant any wishes he commands. The man pondered about wanting a sausage and wished for a sausage out loud. As the fairy's wish was his command a sausage appeared and his wife who was not impressed got bitter and yelled at the husband about wasting a wish and went on and on until the man couldn’t take it and wished the sausage was stuck on the tip of her nose. The major themes in the book were being careful what you wish for because even though it’s a fictional book being careful what you desire can be not what you want the outcome to be and might not fit in the expectations you wanted it to be.The main genre of this book is a folklore, traditional literature book. Through reading this book, I learned that you have to be careful about what you wish or say, which is a good message for the audience and could be a life lesson while playing into the folklore of the mystical creature of a fairy. Some of the literary devices the author used in writing this book were narrative about the storytelling of the book. Another literary device is onomatopoeia “Clatter-bump!” “Clatter-bang!”, when describing the noise of the sound of the story come to life.

[Erika · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is about a poor woodcutter. He wishes and wishes for all kinds of things that did not come true. One morning he saw a big oak tree. In that tree was a tree fairy. She lives in the tree. because the woodcutter did not cut down her tree, she gave him three wishes. He and his wife thought of many different things they could wish for. The woodcutter accidentally used his first wish on a piece of sausage. The woodcutter was so upset. He used his second wish to stick the sausage to his wife's nose. The wood cutter had to use his last wish to unstick the sausage from his wife's nose. Then they sat down for dinner. The moral of the story is don't be greedy or you will squander it. This is a good book to teach kids to be grateful for the things that they have because if you are not you could end up with a sausage stuck to your nose. I've seen many versions of the story but I have to say this one was the funniest. I think this would be a hilarious but also thought provoking book to read to students.

[Rebecca Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inside this folkale the author retells the known story of the three wishes. These wishes though are not from a genie but from a tree fairy. As normal the wishes are used on useless things that are accidentally said. This particular tale though is told with the husband geting upset and accidentaly using the wishes. I also thought it was interesting that the author showed to husband to be so apoligetic and liked how she added the detail in his voice of him being sorry. But just like all the other tales of this story, the three wishes are used on nothing of importance and wasted of the possibility they had.

[Linda Rusche · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly story but, I did love the idea of a tree fairy!

[Mary]

English folktale

[Alana Rainey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with my kiddo and it was hilarious.

[Julisa Hernandez-Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story's message is that of being grateful for what you have and that is a good message that younger children should be aware of. I enjoyed how this book showed how the wood-cutter was a nice person since the beginning of the story as he did not want to cut down the tree even when he needed the wood to make money. Throughout the story, the illustrations of the characters helps the reader understand more about how the characters feel. If the character is yelling or frustrated, you are able to see that on the character's face which allows students to use the illustrations for context clues if they do not understand the words.

[Sally Bruesewitz]

A wood cutter, a fairy and a bossy wife... careful what you wish for is the message and a happy ending.