Joplin, Wishing

Eleven-year-old Joplin never knew her grandfather, a reclusive Salinger-like author, due to a rift in the family. When she and her mother close up his Maine house after his death, Joplin looks for a keepsake of some kind and comes across a tin filled with pottery shards. Pieced together, they reveal a delftware platter featuring a bucolic scene with a wistful-looking girl painted in the center. Back in Greenwich Village, Joplin, who is bullied at school and virtually friendless since her BFF ditched her for a mean-girl clique, has the platter restored and then wishes that the painted girl could be her friend. The next day she is stunned when her wish comes true. She finds the girl, whose name is Sofie, sitting in her building's courtyard garden, and learns that Sofie is under a curse that has for centuries forced her to grant wishes to whoever owns the platter. The rest of the novel is a desperate race to rescue Sofie by breaking the curse, which involves foiling the villain--a cruel potter, now an immortal being--who made the platter. Fortunately, the girls have help: Stanley's deftly created friendships, both intergenerational and among Joplin's peers, winningly factor into the story's resolution. Suspenseful, mysterious, thoughtful, and occasionally melancholic, this is an intricately plotted tale that ultimately connects Sofie to Joplin (and to her mother and grandfather) in a surprising and satisfying way. monica edinger