THE GENIE IN THE BOOK

A bookish genie adds zing to a ten-year-old’s summer vacation, and also helps out in a family crisis, in this improbable but engaging fantasy. It’s looking like a dull stay at Grandma’s for Will, until he opens an old copy of Arabian Nights and summons a green giant named Homer (as in the poet), who offers to grant his heart’s wish in exchange for freedom. While Will tries to figure out what his heart’s wish might be, Homer obligingly calls upon his own reading of National Velvet and other classics to grant several minor wishes: providing real horses for a birthday party; turning Will, his little sister, and his reckless cousin into fish and then into a hot jazz trio; and finally, in a massively contrived climax, rescuing the coffee shop that Will’s parents own from an unscrupulous competitor. Alley’s chapter-head drawings capture the tale’s amiable tone as the young folk come through for each other, getting into pickles but no real danger while the grownups remain (somehow) oblivious. And once Will realizes that that was all he wanted, too, Homer flies free. Entertaining. (Fiction. 9-11)