The Wishing Stick is a heartwarming and whimsical story centred on the unlikely, yet profound, friendship between a teenage girl and a charismatic aged care resident. The story is initiated when Janey, a final-year high school student, begins a local history project, leading her to interview Bill Stoddart at the Serenity Gardens facility.The story unfolds through Bill's captivating storytelling, as their formal chat sessions quickly evolve into an exchange of "mischievous stories, fascinating connections, wisdom sharing and an array of some not-so-ordinary events". The title object, the wishing stick (or "crook"), is a walking stick gifted to Bill by his grandfather after Bill, as a five-yea...