One enchanted pond. Two tangled wishes. A wild, heart-tugging adventure for the whole family!
What if you accidentally stole your twin’s birthday fantasy before they could say a word?
Bril is a dreamer. Arisa is fearless. On their ninth birthday, a wish-granting pond swaps their destinies: Bril ends up on a roaring pirate voyage, while Arisa is left on a silent beach—unless she can find the courage to change it.
Told in musical, rhythmic verse and brought to life with luminous watercolor illustrations, this is a warm, wonder-filled tale about stepping into someone else’s shoes, listening with your heart, and finding your way back to each other.
🐚 Peek Inside the Pages
Watercolor illustrations that bring every wave, wish, and wonder to life.
✨ Get Your Copy
Read it. Hear it. Love it.
🧭 Teacher’s Corner
Bring the adventure into your classroom — creative activities inspired by The Ninth Birthday Wish.
✏️ Creative Writing & Imagination
🎁 Activity: The Mixed-Up Wish Box
Students experience the magic of mismatched wishes firsthand — just like Bril and Arisa.
🎯 The Concept
Students mimic the exact mechanical conflict of the book by accidentally ‘stealing’ a classmate’s creative premise and forcing themselves to write their way out of it.
🃏 The Setup
Hand out two different colored index cards to every student — Blue for Bril’s style and Pink for Arisa’s style.
✍️ The Prompt
- On the Blue Card, write a wish for a calm, relaxing, or intellectual activity (e.g., floating on a cloud reading a comic book, building a giant LEGO castle).
- On the Pink Card, write a wish for a wild, fast-paced adventure (e.g., skydiving out of a hot air balloon, riding a T-Rex through a grocery store).
🌀 The Twist
Collect all cards into two separate tissue boxes (‘The Wishing Ponds’). Every student draws one card of each color, picks the one most opposite their own personality, and writes a 5-sentence story about how they survive that day.
✨ The Engaging Element
Students must include a line of dialogue where their character says: ‘This wasn’t my wish, but…’ — then describe a magical gift or talent they’d wish for their character, and explain how it would make their life happier.
✍️ The Author Behind the Story
Bruce Arrington
Bruce E. Arrington is an independent author and the founder of Pipe Dream Books, dedicated to crafting immersive stories that spark the imagination across generations. From whimsical picture books to sweeping epic fantasy worlds, Bruce weaves themes of integrity, courage, and perseverance into every narrative.