A Wish After Midnight Zetta Elliott

A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott

Originally self published, A Wish After Midnight was picked up and recently rereleased by AmazonEncore. When I reviewed A Wish After Midnight in March of 2009, I went with a semi serious approach. I decided to critic and praise. I did this for a three reasons. At the time I believe it was only the second online review of AWAM, the first one being Edi's , it was given to me by the author, and it was self published.

In January, I reread A Wish After Midnight. I could've read the new cover (which looks even better in person) but I ended up reading the first self published editon.
It felt familiar and comfortable. For me there's something about rereading the words that have already been already read.

The second time around, I found more to love. The first time I was so focused on 15 yr Genna Colon's dreams and journey, I didn't take the time to appreciate how much the author was really giving. I missed Elliott's commitment to character detail. As well as her description and history of the Brooklyn Botanical gardens.

There are trees in the garden that are older than me, Mama, and Abuela put together. The weeping hemlock is a hundred and twelve years old, and the Armistice maples were planted in 1918 after WWI. If those trees could speak, I wonder what they would say. Sometimes I sit still and listen as the wind whispers through their leaves.

Full disclosure time since receiving A Wish After Midnight from Zetta Elliott in March, we've become friends via online. So I am very happy and excited for author. Though in the end I am more excited for the young readers who will now be able to discover A Wish After Midnight.

Every child should be exposed to stories different from their own. Every child has a right to see themselves reflected in the fiction they read. Its such a beautiful feeling to fully lose yourself in a novel, without having to pretend the characters look like you because they already do. Even now I still don't take that feeling for granted.

From the back cover

Genna is a fifteen year old girl who wants out of tough Brooklyn neighborhood. But she gets more than she bargained for when a wish gone awry transports her back to Civil War - Era Brooklyn, Genna must use all of her wits to survive. In tradition of Octavia Butler's Kindred and Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time, A Wish After Midnight is affecting and inspiring tale of a fearless young woman's fight to hold on to her individuality and her humanity in two different worlds.

A review by Paula L. Woods @ Thedefendersonline read an excerpt