Chapter 1Once there was a boy called Ping who was from Hong Kong. He was a very energetic boy but unfortunately he was living the terrifying  life of poverty.

Life for Ping was terrible. His family lived in horrendous housing with very high rent and was always sick.  His family could barely afford to feed themselves plus their three children. To get money, the family would go to different places in Hong Kong like, MTR stations, alleyways and streets to beg.  

Chapter 2One day Ping was begging, when a young, English boy came up to him. He looked clean and wealthy. “What’s your name, poor boy?”  he asked, in a mocking voice.“My name is Ping.” Ping was a bit offended and hid his face. “Cheer up, it was a joke, anyway my name is Peter.”So they started talking and eventually became friends.

Chapter 3So now that they were friends. The problem was that Peter’s parents would not let Peter be friends or know people that were poor.  They did not think that poor people had anything to offer rich people, especially their precious son Peter.

When Ping was begging one day, somebody dropped a lantern into his hat. He picked it up and looked inside. Slowly and dreamily, a blue Genie came out of the lantern.  Ping could not believe his eyes!

“What? Who are you?”

“ I am a Genie that will grant you three wishes,  but call me Jay,” answered the Genie.

Chapter 4At the same time, as Peter walked in his front gate, he saw a golden lantern shape in the corner of his garden. When he looked inside, out came a green Genie, who told him that he would grant him three wishes. For Peter’s first wish, he wished for an Iphone 7 because it wasn't  even out yet.  He wanted to have the newest and best gadget around.

Meanwhile, Ping wished for food for his whole family so that they could have one night when they weren’t starving and trying to share old chicken drumsticks and leftover noodles from the rubbish bins.

“If thats what you want I will grant your wishes,” said the Genies to both boys and POOF!!! Suddenly Peter had an iphone 7 and Ping had a table of food for his family.

Chapter 5Peter was so excited that he could get anything he wanted so his second wish was to stay home from school and do whatever he pleased. Then magically Peter’s wish came true but something went wrong. Was the Genie playing tricks on Peter, or was he just being too selfish?  Peter started coughing and felt sicker and sicker as the day went on.

Meanwhile, Ping had a  big smile on his face from his large dinner the night before. He wanted to go and see his friend Peter to tell him about his wonderful magic lantern. Luckily, Peter’s parents weren’t home when Ping came over to see Peter.

“Are you sick?” asked Ping.

“Yes, I feel terrible and I think it has something to do with the lantern I found,” Peter said.

“Oh wow! You found a lantern? Me too!”  shouted Ping with excitement.

“But something went wrong with my wish,” said Peter.

“Maybe thats why you're sick,” said Ping. “You know, I still have two wishes left, so I could use one wish to help you get better.“Wow! Would you really do that?” asked Peter.“Yes of course. I’m sure you’d do the same thing for me if I was sick,” smiled Ping. Just then, Peter’s parents came home and Ping had to climb out the window before getting caught. They would be very mad if they knew that Peter was friends with a poor boy.

Chapter 6Ping ran home, on the way home Ping decided that he would help Peter. When he arrived home he went straight to his mother and asked for his lantern then ran as fast as he could back to Peter’s house. He was not allowed into the house when Peter’s parents were home so Ping wished outside the house for Peter to be better. As the Genie popped out of the lantern he granted the wish. “Peter will be better by tomorrow morning,” he said. Ping saw Peter’s dad close to the window in Peter’s room and was disappointed that he couldn’t go to see his friend. Then he ran home to his family.

Chapter 7The next morning, Peter felt much better. He was so happy to be out of bed and wanted to use his final wish. Peter thought about Ping and how he had used his wish to help him. He thought about all of the people he could help, but there was something that Peter had always wanted to do for himself. He looked into the lantern and wished for the most amazing hot air balloon ride, all the way over the city to the mountains on the other side. POOF!! There it was, the most beautiful red balloon he could imagine. He stepped into the hot air balloon and looked around when a gust of wind hit the balloon and  suddenly the rope broke. He did not know how to ride a hot air balloon so he was drifting away with the wind. While Ping was begging he noticed a big balloon in the air he did not know who was in it but he knew the boy was panicking. Peter was really scared he did not know what to do so he tried calling for help but no one heard him because he was so high up in the air. Ping thought hard about this decision and then made his last wish.

Chapter 8A minute later after Ping made his wish to save Peter. He floated down from the air.  When Peter came off from the hot air balloon he realized that Ping had used his last wish to save him.

“Thank you so much for saving me!” Peter said. “I’m sorry I didn’t use one of my wishes for you.”

“It’s all right Peter,” Ping said, “I’m just glad you’re alright.”

After thanking Ping several times Peter ran home to his parents and told them about Ping saving his life. He explained how Ping was always helping other people. Peter decided that he really wanted to do something to help Ping. So Peter’s parents made the decision to buy Ping’s family a house and pay for Ping and his brothers and sisters to go to school.

PICTURES

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CreditsBook written and illustrated by

Asia McLaughlin, Abby Costigan, Aoife Keating ,Keerthana Natarajan, Zachary Perez Jones And Emma DoubledaySpecial Thanks to all Bradbury School Students and Teachers who helped created the book. This book may be

used to promote global awareness.