Allan's Wishes: Illustrated Edition

By Bill Arnott

Allan and Teddy are off, on the world's greatest adventure, and they're never coming back! An all-ages novella of travel, exploration, and growing up, from award winning author Bill Arnott, illustrated by Brett Jasch.

Goodreads: “Allan's Wishes is a marvelous read for children of all ages, chock full of good humor, life lessons, whimsy, and heart,” Dr. Manuel Matas

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bill Arnott
• Release date: Mar 16, 2021
• ISBN: 9780973652895

Bill Arnott

Bill Arnott is the bestselling author of the suspense/thriller series The Gamble Novellas, Allan's Wishes: Illustrated Edition, Bill Arnott's Beat: Road Stories & Writers' Tips, WIBA and ABF Book Awards Finalist Gone Viking: A Travel Saga, and the travelogue sequel Gone Viking II: Beyond Boundaries. For his Gone Viking expeditions, Bill's been granted a Fellowship at London's Royal Geographical Society. When not trekking the globe with a small pack, weatherproof journal and laughably outdated camera phone, Bill can be found on Canada’s west coast, making friends and misbehaving. @billarnott_aps

Book preview

Allan’s Wishes

Bill Arnott

Illustrations by Brett Jasch

Copyright © 2020 Bill Arnott

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission of the author and publisher, except in the case of quotations used in articles and reviews.

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Arnott, Bill

Allan’s Wishes, Illustrated

ISBN: 978-0-9736528-9-5

Published by

Wonderful Magical Publications

Canada

Allan’s Wishes

It was a lovely spring day when Allan left. But you may want to know a little more about Allan to better understand his decision to leave for good.

Allan wished a lot. He wished he were taller, like the older kids, the ones in middle school. He wished his ears were different. More accurately, he wished they were uniformly shaped. And smaller. Sometimes he wished his family – his mom and his sister – behaved differently. He wished that he could travel the world and have adventures, the kind he saw people – travellers – have on TV, with big backpacks. Allan wished he had one of those as well. A big backpack. These were amongst the many things Allan wished for.

Wishing was something Allan had done for as long as he could remember. One of his earliest memories was one of wishing. It was his birthday. He was kneeling on a chair at the table, leaning over his birthday cake – a sailboat – chocolate hull, white icing sail. With lifesaver portholes. And a candle by the sail where a mast would be.

Make a wish, Allan, his mom said.

Yeah, make a wish, his sister said.

Make a wish! Make a wish!

And Allan made a wish.

He wished that he could leap into that sailboat, right through a lifesaver porthole. He’d make his way to the helm. And Teddy would be there with him. Allan knew his Teddy would make a fine first-mate. Teddy was good at all kinds of things. He was particularly good with knots. He tied Allan’s shoelaces into some of the best. One time, Allan’s mom had to cut them, that’s how good they were. Teddy also knew the difference between port and starboard and could say, Swab the poop deck! without giggling. And he was good in the kitchen – the galley, as sailors called it. Teddy could cook. Grilled cheese was his specialty. He made it with both kinds of cheese – orange and white. He was also good at cleaning up. Chief Cook and Bottle-Washer, that’s what Allan’s mom called Teddy.

Once Allan saw his mom getting Teddy’s help scrubbing the inside of a tall, narrow vase. Teddy had gotten right down through the neck