The Lightning Bolt

By Michael Bedard

This story of dark enchantment, with haunting, larger-than-life illustrations, will hold readers in its spell long after they have turned the last page.... A stick that grants any wish and a magic cap that can read people's thoughts are the farthest things from the old woman's mind as she gathers wood in the forest. That is, until she helps a strange little man she finds twisted in the roots of an old tree. For her kindness he gives her his stick and his cap, and that's when her troubles begin. Her cruel husband uses the wishing stick to satisfy his own greed, and the old woman watches as things go from bad to worse until her own life is in danger.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195407326
• ISBN13: 9780195407327
• Release Date: November 1989
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 32 Pages
• Age Range: 9 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 4 to 7