The character "Midas" here is a pre-school-aged child in the modern era. He loves his green toy dinosaur and the colour yellow. Given a series of choices, he always picks the yellow option. During a painting session with yellow paint he begins to wish that all of the things in his life – his house, his car, his mother – were yellow. In a moment of impulsiveness, he turns and paints his stuffed green dinosaur yellow. Now his beloved dinosaur is painted, Midas understands his mistake. He bends down to touch the dinosaur as if it is ill. In tears, he cries "No more yellow", as his mother comes running. We see him watching the dinosaur go round in a washing machine. The story concludes with him hugging his cleaned dinosaur, with the caption, "I like yellow, but I love you just the way you are." A one-page summary of the myth follows, written for adults or slightly older children (c. 4–8).

This short and lovely book perfectly and brilliantly captures the essence and moral of the myth of King Midas and the gold in an intelligent but informal way. It is part of a beautifully illustrated series that creatively transposes ancient myths into the real-life scenarios faced by pre-school-aged children. Subtle ancient-style features are included in the design of each volume in the series: a brightly-coloured Greek key runs vertically along the cover beside the spine; the series name is written on a scroll, with the "S" of "myths" written in a jagged, inscription-like style; on the spine, the main character is shown standing upon a Doric column, with the name of the book written on the column, and the image of the character atop a column is repeated in the interior title-page.

Toddler Midas loves yellow above all colours. He even wishes his mother were yellow. When he colours his beloved dinosaur toy yellow it upsets him and he exclaims "no more yellow". Luckily the toy can be washed back to its original colour and Midas admits that he likes yellow but loves his toy the way it is. A theme, or moral lesson, is included in the fore-notes in the style of a dedication. In Make a Wish, Midas!, the dedication is "To wishing and wanting". This plays out in the book through Midas' wish to make all of the things he loves yellow – with yellow as a witty stand-in for the mythical Midas' wish to turn things into gold (as seen in the myth's most famous iteration, Ovid, Metamorphoses, 11.90–194). As in the traditional myth, there is a cautionary note in the tale, as the book invites young readers to act and choose carefully and thoughtfully. This cautionary note works on multiple levels. At its simplest level, this story urges children to look after their toys; to avoid damaging them by thoughtlessly colouring them or otherwise changing them. Many young children go through phases in which they are somewhat obsessive about a particular colour or other theme, and it is likely that children will recognise this in Midas. The book's moral cautions children against going too far with this instinct, specifically against trying to change things to make them conform to their own desires. Midas learns that thoughtless, over-hasty wish fulfillment does not really bring contentment. There is also a pro-diversity message within the story's moral. The phrase, "Just the way you are", has a history of use in encouraging diversity and acceptance, promoting the idea that people do not need to change key aspects of their identity (usually ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or religion) in order to be likable. Midas' realisation that his dinosaur is not the "wrong" colour is part of his growth into a more accepting and less egocentric view of the world. As this retelling features a young black family, this book also conveys the message that Greco-Roman myth is for everyone, regardless of ethnicity. Through these messages, Make a Wish, Midas! follows the tradition of myths as moral instructors for children and communicates the traditional moral of this myth by discouraging people from acting on thoughtless desires. Rather unusually, the main story does not touch on the other traditional association of this myth – discouragement of greed. As the readership is anticipated to be very young, it is age-appropriate that the moral message is not over-diffused; warnings against greed would arguably have been less relevant for young children than discouragement from acting over-hastily, which is perhaps the reason that the greed element was not emphasised. 

The summary at the end of the book describes how Dionysus offered Midas a wish to thank him for a favour. The results make Midas "very sad", and Dionysus tells him how to "wash away his 'golden touch'". The summary stresses Midas' greed rather than his thoughtlessness, meaning that there is a slight discrepancy of emphasis between story and myth summary. This may have been influenced by the strong association of this myth with moral cautions concerning greed and the anticipation that adult readers would expect to find this theme somewhere within the book. The tale of Midas and the ass' ears, also found in Ovid, is omitted. 

This series introduces very young children to some of the names and images associated with antiquity, preparing them for encountering these images and characters again in different contexts. At a very fundamental level, these books also act on and communicate the idea that ancient mythology contains concepts that can help in children's development – social and emotional. Children at the outer edge of the age bracket for these books can also enjoy the summary that comes at the end of the book, which creates the opportunity for an early encounter with the sophisticated concept of characters reappearing in different contexts and stories, and stories working on different levels – things which are likely to stimulate thought and a nuanced approach to stories and story-telling. This aspect is reinforced in Make a Wish, Midas! by the observation in the summary that "in some versions of this myth" Midas turned his daughter to gold. This book is a perfect example of how an ancient myth can be conveyed clearly with few words. It is very helpful that the author included the real mythological tale at the end for reference. It is truly a tale, as the cover says "for the young and the young at heart".

Griffiths, Alan H., "Midas" in Oxford Classical Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003 (ed. pr. 1949), 978.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, "The Golden Touch" in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, Boston: Ticknor, Reed and Fields, 1852.

Roberts, Deborah H., "The Metamorphosis of Ovid in Retellings of Myth for Children", in Lisa Maurice, ed., The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children’s Literature. Heroes and Eagles, Leiden: Brill, 2015, 233–256.

Weinlich, Barbara, "The Metanarrative of Picture Books: ‘Reading’ Greek Myth for (and to) Children", in Lisa Maurice, ed., The Reception of Ancient Greece and Rome in Children’s Literature. Heroes and Eagles, Leiden: Brill, 2015, 83–104.