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You may have as many wishes as you are able to make on a single breath of air. Take a deep breath. Then blow outward like the wind. Let all the wishes ride on a single breath.

Ary thought she had many more wishes for her family than could ride on a single breath.

One more thing you must remember, Ary. Answers to wishes rarely come in the manner we expect.

Ary is a young girl who lives in Phnom Penh. Outside the Cambodian city of Phnom Penh, birds fly free on yellow winds, flying over rice fields and trees in an endless sky. But Ary does not know these birds, or the clean yellow winds. The air she breathes is full of soot and pollution. The only birds she sees are in a cage.

Ary feels trapped, just like the birds. Her family is poor, but Ary has many wishes for them. She longs to buy a bird from the bird lady's cage and set it free, to carry her wishes into the wide open sky where, according to tradition, they will be fulfilled.

Ary must find a way, using her knowledge and strength of spirit, to send her wishes on the wind, so that someday she and her family can find a better life. Her story gives us a glimpse into the life of a child from another culture who wants the same thing for her family that we do for ours.

Frederick Lipp, a retired Unitarian Universalist minister, has written a beautiful story of a young girl's desire for freedom and her persistence in trying to send her wishes into the air. Ronald Himler offers us exquisite illustrations of Ary and her life in Phnom Penh. This book has been named a Parents' Choice Honor Book by the Parents' Choice Foundation.

A wonderful story for ages 4-8 about a courageous and resourceful young girl and her desire for a better life for her family.