This novel feels like the perfect mix of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory", "The Wizard of Oz", and "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe". Inside these pages, we enter a surreal and magical world that only our minds can fathom. And then, by some miraculous stroke of genius, the author melds this euphoric fantasyland with real life in the most compelling and authentic way.
Even though my eyes were never opened to the joys of reading as a young boy, I could imagine and experience through the pages of this book just how perfect the imagination works, no matter your age.
Amidst the frolicking thoughts of an island filled with riddles and make-believe and fanciful figments of one's wandering fascination, I found myself hyper-focused on something much more visceral and real... fear.
This book was rife with anxiety, worry, and unpleasant memories about the past and future. But it's in the present where all of these thoughts (and what we can do about them) exist. It doesn't matter whether you are a ten-year-old boy, an eighty-year-old man, or a middle-aged woman, it's a common bond we share as human beings. Our unique life experiences have carved out apprehension about certain aspects of our lives that we encounter and need to face every single day.
And here's where this book shines in a most realistic way, through examples on both ends of the spectrum. We can choose to face and handle those paralyzing fears on our own, or we can decide that it takes a village to raise a child. It seems like an unlikely connection, I admit. But we're all children. The technical definition of that word is someone who is of a young age. And that logically translates to someone who still has something to learn. And we are all in that boat together, perhaps on a mythical trip to Clock Island in this book, where as the author suggests...
"The only wishes ever granted are the wishes of brave children who keep on wishing even when it seems no one is listening because someone always is."
Be a child. Keep wishing. Face your fears. Lean on others. It's not a game, but gosh it sure feels like there's a prize waiting for us on the other side of those brave dreams encouraging us along.
Dave’s Rating: ☕️☕️☕️☕️
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