Arabella and the magic pencil by Stephanie Ward and Shaney Hyde

Exisle, 2019. ISBN: 9781925820010. 32pp., hbk.
Arabella is the only child of a duke and duchess who allow her to have one wish granted every year. She has been given a pink puppy, a fair, even a fairy. But one thing she does not want is a baby brother but he comes along without her wishing. And Master Archibald Vermillion Remington XV (aka Avery) cause so much mayhem that although Arabella loves him as she should, she does not always like him. Her next wish is a magic pencil, one that can make everything she draws real. She has a lot of fun with it until the day she draws a magnificent garden party and Avery invites himself in. He ruins it for her, climbing the hill of honeycomb, skipping across the sparkles and wallowing in the whipped cream waterfall. Arabella pulls out her pencil and begins to use the other end of the pencil to rub things out. But then the illustrations change from bright summery colours, filling the pages with colour and interest, to ones that are drab and uninteresting now that her little brother has gone.
A true cautionary tale about wishes not being all they seem, children will ponder the fate of the unwished for sibling and think about their own siblings and how much they are part of their lives.
Fran Knight