Below is the concerning content we observed. To ensure we provided a full picture, we read the book cover to cover, which was not a great reading experience, but allowed us to make sure there won’t be any surprises for you and your family.

Much of this title revolves around leading a young person towards following their dreams. Sadly, this primarily focuses on shallow endeavors. In one path, the reader is taken along becoming (or failing to become) the lead singer of a rock band. While our culture often throws this example around (“you rock”), the reality of the life of most rock stars is/was not something we want our child hoping for or pursuing. The only “good ending” on this path certainly glorifies this life as the reader joins the band and begins touring.

On another main branch of the story, the goal for the young reader is to go and experience the life of the rich. Early in the story the reader sees a rich character being obsessed over and the narrator comments, “They all want to be around him, so do you (the reader)”. Later the reader goes to tell grandma their desire to be rich, to which grandma (strangely) sends her to a warlock who grants wishes for a cost. To make this path quite a bit more concerning, the young girl the reader is navigating through this story ends up, along one possible path, hanging out with an adult man, often alone. In another possible ending, this rich man drowns in an accident (out of sync with the seriousness with the rest of the book) and upon hearing about this a side character heartlessly says, “Huh, I guess he wasn’t rich enough to afford swimming lessons”.

A few other things to be aware of:

We should point out that the bad endings really are an interesting let down as our brain seeks and expects the ultimate happy ending. Most of the bad endings, instead of dying or something similar, you often end up failing to fulfill some shallow wish (getting to be friends with a rich guy).

A statue of a mermaid is shown on the cover. It is small, but it does look a bit “revealing”.

In the final main storyline that is available, a sea witch is shown who can grant wishes, showing a slightly creepy pic.