The Wishbone Wish

Back to share top billing in the fourth Judy Moody and Stink story, the Moody siblings gear up for the local Gobblers-a-Go-Go festival: Judy plans to dress up as Sarah Josepha Hale, the woman who persuaded President Lincoln to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. And Judy is so certain she’ll win a footrace that boasts a turkey as top prize, she tells her grandmother not to bother buying one (which worries Stink mightily). As in the siblings’ previous outings, their spot-on dialogue and banter is a major source of this book’s fun (“I’m sorry I called you a turkey,” Stink apologizes after a long stint in time-out. “And a snood. And a wattle”), and Reynolds’s full-color illustrations easily tap into the upbeat, offbeat holiday mood. Ages 6–9. Illustrator’s agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Sept.)