Charlie is an 11-year-old girl who does not know what it is like to have a family that is “put together.” Her dad is in jail and her mother is uninvolved and distant. Charlie is sent to live with her aunt and uncle while her mother gets back on her feet. Charlie makes the same wish any chance she gets.

She even has a list of all the ways there are to make the wish, such as cutting off the pointed end of a slice of pie and wishing on it as she takes the last bite. But when she is sent to the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina to live with the family she barely knows, it seems unlikely that her wish will ever come true.

Determined to make this time at her aunt and uncles short, Charlie is not invested in making friends or getting along with the teachers. Little does Charlie know, being sent away might just be the best thing that would ever happen to her.

There, she meets Wishbone, a skinny stray dog who captures her heart, and Howard, a neighbor boy who proves surprising in lots of ways. Suddenly Charlie is in serious danger of discovering that what she thought she wanted may not be what she needs at all.

From award-winning author Barbara O’Connor comes this novel about a girl who, with the help of a true blue friend, big-hearted aunt and uncle, and the dog of her dreams, unexpectedly learns the true meaning of family in the least likely of places.

(SD-Agencies)