Meanie Genie

January 5, 2004
Jones's Little Genie series gets off to a weak start with this skimpy story centering on a nine-year-old girl who complains that nothing exciting ever happens in her town. Browsing a flea market with her grandmother, Ali buys a dusty, broken Lava Lamp from the 1960s. When she rubs it with a cloth in an attempt to clean it, the lamp's liquid contents begin to move and one of the wax blobs assumes the shape of a "tiny girl." With a puff of pink smoke, the diminutive figure appears outside the lamp and—after instructing Ali to snap her fingers—becomes a full-size girl. Little Genie announces she has been trapped in the lamp for some 40 years. Though the plot may well have then taken funny or fanciful flight, it falls flat. Ali, offered three wishes, announces her first ("I want a tiger") because she at that moment spots an advertisement for Tiger Chocolate. The genie then brings to life the ad's logo—a purple cartoon tiger—whose antics with Ali and Genie are silly and sluggish. Neither this nor Ali's two subsequent requests of the genie are likely to compel readers to return to the series to discover the girl's subsequent sets of wishes. Final artwork not seen by PW
. Ages 6-8.