A Birthday Wish Across the World: 1

Today is my seventh birthday. I have a shiny paper crown and a big chocolate cake. But there is one thing missing. Daddy is deployed far away. He cannot help blow out the candles or eat the frosting. So Mommy sets the tablet on the coffee table, right next to the cake, and turns the volume all the way up. And a little girl watches the clock while the minutes tick by very, very slowly. Then the tablet chimes. There he is, in his uniform, with the desert sun behind him and a voice that comes through a little crackly. Make a wish, he says. A really good one. She does not wish for toys. A gentle story about the birthdays military families celebrate around a screen, and about the one wish a child makes when the person she wants most is on the other side of the world. Part of the Silver Lined Dreams series from Minton Legacy Publishing, written for military families by an author whose own family has served. Full color throughout. Written for ages 4 to 8, to be read together.