What You Wish For: A book for Darfur has brought together a potent roster of international talent, from Francisco X. Stork’s hopeful “The Rules for Wishing,” where a young man living in an unusual group home learns what it means to make a wish, to Cornelia Funke’s spirited “Rosanna,” where magic goes awry when a bully set his sights on the title character, to John Green’s thoughtful “Reasons,” where a boy loves an unattainable girl completely and honestly. Then there’s the heartrending sacrifice one dying girl makes for another in Karen Hesse’s stunning “Nell”; a bullied boy’s poignant wish for a friend in Meg Cabot’s “The Protectionist”; and many, many more gems, including poems and even a graphic story from some the best talent writing for children today.
Each story and poem has its own affecting power and celebrates the simple wishes—home, family, safety and love, things we all wish for—of the Darfuri refugees this collection honors with incredible grace, beauty, and ofttimes humor. What You Wish For is a collection poised to leave an indelible mark.
This collection will benefit the literacy and education of Darfuris by supporting library development in refugee camps. Book Wish Foundation, an all-volunteer 501 (c)(3) public charity founded by a mother-and-son team, organized the collection and will donate its proceeds to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR.
Authors: Alexander McCall Smith, Gary Soto, Nikki Giovanni, Meg Cabot, Karen Hesse, Naomi Shihab Nye, Nate Powell, Ann M. Martin, Cornelia Funke, Jane Yolen, Sofia Quintero, R. L. Stine, Joyce Carol Oates, Cynthia Voigt, Marilyn Nelson, Francisco X. Stork, John Green, and Jeanne DuPrau
Author
John Green
John Green is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of books including Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, and Turtles All the Way Down. His books have received many accolades, including a Printz Medal, a Printz Honor, and an Edgar Award. John has twice been a finalist for the LA Times Book Prize and was selected by TIME magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. He is also the writer and host of the critically acclaimed podcast The Anthropocene Reviewed. With his brother, Hank, John has co-created many online video projects, including Vlogbrothers and the educational channel Crash Course. He lives with his family in Indianapolis, Indiana. You can visit John online at johngreenbooks.com._________________________________________John Green nació en Indianápolis en 1977, y se graduó en Lengua y Literatura Inglesa y Teología de Kenyon College. Tras iniciar su carrera en el mundo editorial como crítico y editor, ha sido galardonado con el premio de honor Printz y el premio Edgar por sus diversas novelas. Con su novela Bajo la misma estrella ha demostrado su capacidad para emocionar a lectores de todas las edades y se ha convertido en uno de los autores más vendidos del mundo.
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Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates is a recipient of a National Humanities Medal awarded by President Barack Obama, the National Book Critics Circle’s Ivan Sandrof Life Achievement Award, the National Book Award in Fiction, the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina, the Cino Del Duca World Prize, and is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including the bestsellers Blonde and We Were the Mulvaneys. She is the Roger S. Berlind ’52 Distinguished Professor of the Humanities Emerita at Princeton University and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2024 she won the Raymond Chandler Lifetime Achievement Award given to “a master of the thriller and noir literary genre.”
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Daniel Hahn is an award-winning translator, writer and editor. His 2026 books include If This Be Magic: the unlikely art of Shakespeare in translation, and translated novels from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru and Guatemala.Padma Viswanathan is author of three novels and a memoir, published in eight countries and shortlisted for the Pen Center USA Fiction Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and others, and has translated four books from Brazilian Portuguese.
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