The Wish and the Peacock
From the best-selling author of A Monster Like Me comes Wendy S. Swore’s new novel, The Wish and the Peacock (Shadow Mountain Press), a fun and ultimately rich story of a young girl’s struggle with loss, grief and change.
Twelve-year-old Paige’s world experiences a seismic shift with the sudden death of her beloved father. Living on a farm that her family has owned for generations, there is nothing she won’t do to hold on to the only life she has ever known. Equipped with her father’s knowledge and relying on her wits, Paige is able to keep the farm going until her mother puts the property up for sale to avoid foreclosure. With the help of her younger brother Scotty and two friends, Mateo and Kimana, Paige conspires to thwart the efforts of the real estate agent who is trying to sell the farm. It is only when a beautiful peacock comes into her life that Paige realizes the need for change. Journalist Asher Ferro, working on a human interest story about the farming community, has a connection to the peacock that Paige will use to come up with a solution that helps everyone involved.
Ms. Swore employs rich allegory to tell her story. According to the author, the farm is more than Paige’s home — it represents her identity and her connection with her father. Ms. Swore explains the symbolism of the peacock: “I found a quote by Tagore that really resonated with me,” she says. “‘The sparrow is sorry for the peacock at the burden of its tail.’ I immediately imagined a peacock who refused to let go — how his beautiful tail that we all loved would become heavier each year, how the feathers would become ragged and soiled until this wonderful thing that we adored would weigh him down and make it impossible to fly or even to live a good life. It struck me that the thing we can learn most from peacocks is the ability to let go, and accept change — not as to defeat, but as a natural process where we grow and evolve as we build our lives.”
I found the allegory in this book to be very engaging, adding a deeper level to the story. Although targeted at middle-school-aged children, The Wish and the Peacock is a book that adults will also appreciate.
GROWTH THROUGH GRIEF
The protagonist develops slowly; there were times when I began to grow weary of Paige’s stubborn refusal to accept what was happening. However, once she begins to perceive her difficulty, Paige’s understanding unfolds in a series of satisfying revelations, granting her the ability to accept change in her life.
Ms. Swore does an excellent job of showing how grief can manifest itself in a myriad of ways in children and adults. Paige’s experience is markedly different from her mother’s, creating tension in their relationship. However, as Paige comes to grips with her grief, she is better able to empathize with her mother.
In creating Paige, Ms. Swore says, “I wanted to highlight the way farm kids, and specifically farm girls, are capable of amazing work and have skill sets that may be lacking in the current digital age.” As a result, Paige is ingenious and tenacious, demonstrating expertise with mechanical repairs, planting crops, taking care of animals, even building robots for a hobby — skills and interests usually seen in boys. She is a wonderful role model.
Paige’s resourcefulness provides many humorous moments. She, Scotty and her friends hatch a series of harebrained schemes to sabotage the efforts of the hapless and long-suffering real estate agent, Miss Dolly.
Ms. Swore’s wish for the story: “I hope kids who read the story feel empowered to make changes for the better in their own lives, regardless of what circumstances that life throws at them. I want them to be able to face an uncertain future with hope instead of fear. I hope they can see all the possibilities, decide what they want, then work hard, and make a wish.”
It’s a story sure to inspire. The Wish and the Peacock is available now for purchase.
Q&A WITH AUTHOR WENDY S. SWORE
Q: What inspired you to write The Wish and the Peacock? How long did it take you to write it?
A: I could write pages of what this farm story means to me because my life and family is so deeply entwined with our farm. I wrote the majority of the story in about six months over last winter, but versions of The Wish and the Peacock have been simmering in the back of my mind for over a decade. When we bought our farm, we were just one of many family farms in the area, but now, over twenty years later, we are one of the last. The farmers I know farm because they love feeding people and helping crops grow, but it’s very grueling physically, mentally and financially. Frankly, most don’t make it.
It’s part of the farming culture to give your all to the family farm — to keep it going for future generations. But when our beloved uncle died suddenly, everything changed. Our vision of the future, our hopes and dreams — all of it. It was and is a heartbreaking transition to lose the “family” farm, but we’re building new hopes and dreams for the future with our own small farm.
Q: What inspires you to include allegory in your writing? Are there particular authors or books you could reference that taught you the value of allegory?
A: I think symbolism, metaphor, and allegories in stories help the reader connect and relate on a deeper level. And while memory of specific story details may fade, the heart-felt connections and meanings remain. For instance, in Bridge to Terabithia, the secret kingdom on the other side of the creek means freedom and hope to the kids, and when Jesse builds a bridge to welcome his little sister as a new queen of Terabithia, it’s more than a nice gesture—it’s a promise of love, trust, and safekeeping that he’s making to her.
As a young reader, finding the meanings, or the story beneath the story, felt a little like a treasure hunt. Some of the allegories were easy to understand, as with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or A Wrinkle in Time, but stories like The One Eyed Cat made me consider bigger topics like guilt, shame, right and wrong. Even seemingly simple stories like MacLachlan’s Sarah, Plain and Tall would stick in my heart with images of the sea, seen in the blowing grasses or in the three colored pencils of blues and gray. Her longing for the sea and pity for the coyote desperate for water represented so much more than just a fondness for the ocean.
I think the books we read and the people we meet on more than a superficial level give us a little piece of themselves to carry with us. We may not get actual, physical wishstones from each like Paige has, but we do carry the memory of the person or story we love and make them a part of ourselves.
Q: The introduction of a peacock into the story seemed unusual to me as the setting was a farm, I am assuming, in the Midwest. How did you come to bring Royal into the story as the central figure that would help not only Paige but also Asher Ferro?
A: We have seven peacocks here on our Idaho farm, and they change with the seasons more than any other animal. Cows and horses might grow a thicker coat, but the peacock’s plumage grows four to five feet long in the spring only to drop those beautiful feathers each fall. These feathers retain that same electric blue-green shimmer forever, which is how peacocks came to symbolize eternal life and rebirth in many cultures. They fan and shake their feathers and seem to love having that long luxurious tail, but at the same time, when they finally let it go, they seem to revel in the new lightness of having let go of all that weight.
Paige’s fear of letting go makes her cling so hard to the way things were that she weighs herself down with responsibility until she almost loses her ability to “fly.” Royal becomes a kindred spirit for her since he too was hurt, afraid, lonely, lost, and weighed down by things he’s not ready to let go of. Through him, she sees herself more clearly, and can imagine a new path forward with hope.
Another meaning associated with peacocks is acceptance and openness, which flows into Asher Ferro’s dilemma. He’s successful and prospering by most standards, but his heart has been battered so much that he’s adrift in his own world, and the one root he had with his grandparents has been severed. For him, the peacocks are connection with his past, an unexpected treasure. As with cottonwood seeds, people like him don’t always get to choose which way the wind blows them, but they can put down roots and grow where they’re planted if they’re open to the idea.
Learn more about Wendy S. Swore on her BookTrib author page.
