When people are interviewed about their deepest desires, invariably wishes for peace, joy, faith, and love are near the top of the list. Writer Lois Rock and illustrator Anne Wilson have come up with a children's book in which wishing is a proactive process that can have a positive effect upon the world.

Rock is the author of a number of rhyming books for children, and several of her shorter poems have appeared in collections of verse. She works as a children's book editor, and lives in Oxfordshire, England, with her husband and three children. In this enchanting volume for children, 4-8 years old, the set-up is:

"The evening sky darkens, the stars will shine bright,
But which is the first star that I'll see tonight?
I wish that I may, oh, I wish that I might
Have everything that I wish for tonight."

A little boy's bed becomes a boat, his quilt its sail, as he voyages to a faraway shore. There he has great adventures and his friends join him. Everything they want is theirs for free, like picking fruit off a tree. In this place, no one goes hungry and no one is cold.

Inspired, the children pass on the bounty to adults and set out together to mend the world:

"Soon, no one will know where the wastelands have been:
The trees will grow tall and the deserts turn green.
The air will blow clear and the rain will fall clean,
And in shimmering streams silver fish will be seen."

There will be no fear among animals toward human beings, and songbirds will sing a concert for all to appreciate. Then the little boy will return to this world with a deep yearning that everything that's wrong will be put right. The challenge in the morning is to make his dream a reality. This mystical tale is carried into our hearts by the Anne Wilson's beautiful collages.