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Authors: Kate Messner

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“Hard shoes first today, ladies and gentlemen!” Miss Brigid calls from the studio. She sees us and smiles. “You ready to work?”

“Absolutely!”

Dasha and I lace our shoes and head into the studio. I take a deep breath. It's funny the way stale school-basement air can make a person feel so alive. But to me, this isn't the smell of old pencils and textbooks. It's the smell of dancing, the smell of hard work and loud stomps and joy.

“Let's start with the hornpipe!” Miss Brigid calls over the music.

Catherine waves at me in the mirror as the music starts. I smile and take a deep breath. When the beat hits, I lift my knee and kick out.

And I'm dancing. Dancing and stomping and kicking, and the loudness of these fast, stomping shoes fills the room. It fills me, until I'm out of breath but bursting with energy because even when I'm scared and worried about Abby, this . . . this is something I can do. I can fill myself
with the energy of this dance, the sound of music and stomps and clicks, the feeling of flying over the floor with Dasha beside me.

It feels amazing. It's enough. And I'm not wishing for anything else.

Author's Note

This was a scary book for me to research and to write, because the truth is that addiction is a disease that can strike any family at any time, with devastating results. Heroin use, in particular, has been steadily increasing in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heroin use among young adults ages eighteen to twenty-five more than doubled from 2002 to 2013. In those same years, the rate of heroin-related deaths almost quadrupled.

Heroin is an opiate drug that is highly addictive. The drug has chemicals that bind to receptors in a user's brain. This can lead quickly to both physical and mental addiction that makes people seek the drug at the expense of everything else in their lives. Heroin use is linked not only to fatal overdoses but also to HIV, hepatitis, liver
and kidney disease, digestive problems, collapsed veins, crime, and violence.

Treatments are available for heroin addiction. Most of these focus on getting the addict through painful withdrawal symptoms and helping to restore the person's normal brain function while forming healthier habits. This involves breaking ties with friends who use illegal drugs and avoiding places where drugs were used in the past.

Here are some places where you can learn more about addiction and families and how to find help:

The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence has a web page dedicated to providing information for families (
https://ncadd.org/for-friends-and-family/family-disease-and-recovery
).

Alcoholics Anonymous, the group Abby attends at her treatment center, is a support group for alcoholics as well as people addicted to other drugs (
http://www.aa.org/
).

Al-Anon and Alateen are groups that offer support and understanding for families of alcoholics and addicts (
http://www.al-anon.org/
).

I'd like to extend my sincerest thanks to the people who shared information and personal stories with me as I researched this book. Michaela von Elbe, you are a phenomenal, strong woman, and I'm so thankful you chose to share your story with me. I'm also grateful to Tara Cota of
Maple Leaf Treatment Center in Underhill, Vermont, who answered my many questions about heroin addiction and treatment.

I'm appreciative of the small village of experts who helped with this novel. Art LaGrange shared his ice fishing experiences on Lake Champlain and showed me how to use an auger. Teachers Eliza Coyle and Lisa Berner talked with me about their work with ESL students. Emily Hambly and her mom, Carolyn, answered my questions about wigs and Irish dance dresses at a feis in Syracuse. Michelle Germain gave me a wonderful tutorial on all things Irish dance, while Wendy Watts Scalfaro, Jackie Germain, and Diane and Khila Pecoraro helped with last-minute questions. Thanks also to Champlain Valley Irish Dance and Marie Short for allowing me to sit in on classes with my notebook. It was a wonderfully loud and joyful place to brainstorm.

I'm grateful to the warm community of writer and reader friends who encouraged, critiqued, nudged, and shared lattes with me. Many thanks to early readers Linda Urban, Loree Griffin Burns, Liza Martz, Eric Luper, Ella Messner, and Meghan and Michelle Germain.

If I could, I'd send a bouquet of ice flowers to the whole amazing Bloomsbury team, especially my editor, Mary Kate Castellani, who remained calm and supportive when I told her I was writing a magical-ice-fishing-Irish-
dancing-heroin novel for kids. Thanks to my agent, Jennifer Laughran, for being a smart, fierce advocate as well as a friend. Most of all, thanks to all the Schirmers, Messners, Rupperts, and Alois, especially Tom, Jake, and Ella. Even if I caught a magic fish, I couldn't wish for a more wonderful family.

Also by Kate Messner

The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z.

Sugar and Ice

Eye of the Storm

Wake Up Missing

All the Answers

Copyright © 2016 by Kate Messner

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in the United States of America in June 2016

by Bloomsbury Children's Books

E-book edition published in June 2016

www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Bloomsbury Children's Books, 1385 Broadway, New York, New York 10018

Bloomsbury books may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at
[email protected]

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Messner, Kate, author.

Title: The seventh wish / by Kate Messner.

Description: New York : Bloomsbury, [2016]

Summary: Charlie feels like she's always coming in last. From her mom's new job to her sister's life away at college, everything else always seems to be more important than Charlie's upcoming dance competition or science project. Unsure of how to get her family's attention, Charlie comes across the surprise of her life one day while ice-fishing . . . in the form of a floppy, scaly fish offering to grant her a wish in exchange for its freedom.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015036430

ISBN 978-1-61963-376-6 (hardcover) • ISBN 978-1-61963-377-3 (e-book)

Subjects: | CYAC: Magic—Fiction. | Wishes—Fiction. | Family life—Fiction.

Schools—Fiction. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Family / Siblings. |

JUVENILE FICTION / Fantasy & Magic. | JUVENILE FICTION / School & Education.

Classification: LCC PZ7.M5615 Sh 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015036430

Book design by Colleen Andrews

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BOOK: The Seventh Wish
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