Wishbound – at a glance
The School Reading Lists’ five word review: Magic, found family, captivity, deafness.
Children’s book title: Wishbound (Book 1).
Children’s author: Clemency Brown.
Genre: Children’s fiction.
Published by: Chicken House.
ISBN: 9781917171458.
Recommended for children aged: 9-12.
First published: Paperback June 2026.
This children’s book is ideal for: looking at the way differences are accepted by others and how the love of close friends and found family can alter your outlook on life.
To see the latest price or order, click on the book cover image. As an Amazon Associate, schoolreadinglist.co.uk earns from qualifying purchases.
Our review:
Nine-year-old Leonie is a wishgiver – someone from the island of Onske who can make anyone’s desires actually happen, or at least she can until she’s twelve. Once she reaches that milestone birthday, she will be matched with a non-magical child who will then control her special abilities and decide which spells to cast. She has been living at the Wishgiver Institute since she was five but has no intention of staying any longer than she has to!
When Leonie finally has a chance to escape the clutches of her awful headteacher, Miss Mathilda Friktelig, she jumps at it, before persuading Jackson, the bodyguard who was with her, not to send her back. Settling into a new life in a small West Country village, and making her first ever best friend, Cressida, Leonie almost begins to believe she’s safe until, when she turns twelve, everything begins to go horribly wrong. Lost and frightened, having travelled to London, Leo and Cress find themselves in way more trouble than they know how to deal with, but they are determined to find the only person they believe they can trust before returning home, which would be a lot easier if Leonie’s magic would just behave!
Our verdict:
A book about magic is no longer that much of an anomaly but this looks at things from a slightly different point of view which leads to Leonie, the main protagonist, into a situation where having to sacrifice her magic leaves her reeling. Her best friend, Cress, is hearing impaired and so the two girls converse using sign language, giving them the advantage of no one else knowing what they are talking about as they make their plans to prevent Leonie’s matching from taking place.
Wishbound is also about how our past determines the way we see our present and future. In Leonie’s case, having been locked up for just under half her life, prohibited from using her magic, she was reluctant to trust Jackson, the man who saved her from Mathilda, but there was very little else she could do to retain her freedom. When everything comes crashing down, she and Cress are forced to flee, leaving Jackson behind, but however bad she thought her matching would be nothing can prepare her for the horrors she is about to face!
Teaching points and book club discussion ideas:
- Having lived in an isolated boarding school for four years, Leonie is determined to escape! How different would her life have been without Jackson and Cressida?
- Have you ever changed schools, either at the end of Year 6 or for another reason? How difficult was it to learn how everything was done in your new school? If you haven’t moved school yet, which part do you think would be the hardest
- British Sign Language uses a person’s hands to spell or identify different words. Can you find BSL online? When you do, use the special language to draw out the hand positions needed to spell your name.
- By the end of the story all the wishgivers have been freed and are no longer matched. How do you think they will now spend their time?
- If you could make someone’s dreams come true, who would you choose? What do you think their first wish would be?
Many thanks to Chicken House for the review copy.
To order a class set of this book, please click below to order via uk.bookshop.org, an organisation that supports local bookshops, or Amazon.co.uk.
Buy from UK.Bookshop.Org Buy from Amazon.co.uk
Disclosure: If you buy books using the buttons above, we may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops; as an Amazon Associate, schoolreadinglist.co.uk earns from qualifying purchases.
Browse our Year 5 reading list.
