Genie Wishes

February 18, 2013
First-time author Dahl underscores the message “Change is okay” in this upbeat slice-of-life novel chronicling Genie Kunkle’s last year of elementary school. The year comes with surprises, which are not all good, including the arrival of a new fifth-grader, Blair Annabelle Lea, who usurps Genie’s position as Sarah White’s best friend. But Genie makes other friends and is thrilled to be elected class blogger, which requires her to write weekly posts for the school Web site tying classroom events to the school’s yearlong theme, “Wishes, Hopes, and Dreams.” Genie’s posts prove to be a success, and as the year progresses, there are more firsts in store for her: shaving her legs, wearing a bra (and getting it snapped), and watching her widowed father go out on dates. Compassionate, optimistic, and creative, Genie overcomes conflicts with bullies and gossipers with grace and learns that she can find happiness just by being herself. Anxious upper elementary school readers will relate to Genie’s social conflicts and comfort in the book’s uncomplicated, speedy resolutions. Ages 8–12. Agent: FinePrint Literary Management.

February 15, 2013
A fifth-grade girl, who under the moniker Genie Wishes becomes the official class blogger, must negotiate the world of preadolescence as she grows away from her BFF. Ten-year-old Genie Haddock Kunkle has been best friends with Sarah White since "what felt like forever." But over the summer, Sarah went to camp with a girl named Blair Annabelle Lea, and now she's in their class. Blair, 11, is more advanced than Genie: She's interested in boys, shaves her legs, has a cellphone and wears makeup. Usually this type of situation is presented as a painful betrayal, but author Dahl's take is more nuanced, and Genie is no one's rejected suitor. Although Genie initially feels bad, she has her own set of values, which Dahl (too) clearly thinks are superior, and she is willing to move on and find more compatible friends. Dahl knows what it's like to be 10, and telling details, such as the fact that Genie and Sarah's future plans include living together within walking distance of their jobs as dolphin trainers, are spot on. She also nails the many decisions, both moral and practical, of preteenhood. Should Genie buy a bra? Plug a line of makeup Blair is selling on her blog? Girls should identify and mothers should approve of this gentle tale of growing up. (Fiction. 8-12)

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May 1, 2013

Gr 4-6-When fifth-grader Genie's best friend, Sarah, becomes friends with Blair, a boy-crazy new girl, everything seems to change. Genie wonders if the transitory property in math also works in friendship: if A is friends with B and B is friends with C, does that mean A is friends with C? Readers follow Genie in her elected position of class blogger as she navigates the final year in the lower grades of her exclusive Baltimore private school through the formation of cliques; bra-snapping; and a secret, malicious blog. Diversity is represented mainly through names and nontraditional families. Readers may have trouble relating to the high socioeconomic status of some of the characters (Blair and Sarah, especially) but frank and honest insights into evolving relationships, changing bodies, and secrets greatly make up for the credit-card-only, tween at-home cosmetics party. Small line drawings add humor to the story. Dahl's first novel is reminiscent of the early installments in Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's "Alice" series (S & S) and will appeal to a similar, if more modern, audience.-Jennifer Wolf, Beaverton City Library, OR

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2013
Grades 3-6 Dahl packs a fair amount of drama into her first novel, but her narrator, Genie Kunkle, is the sort of girl who minimizes the fuss and gets on with her fifth-grade life. Genie has been elected to act as class blogger, and she handles the big task responsibly. Her best friend is lured away by a new girl, but Genie deals with the disappointment and makes new, more compatible friends. Meanwhile, her widowed father starts dating someone, a move she herself encouraged by setting up his computer-dating account. Dahl crafts Genie as a very sensible 10-year-old, but, fortunately for the story, Genie's classmates aren't nearly so wise; there is plenty of tension and trouble along the way. And although Genie steers clear of melodramatic conflicts, she comes up with plenty of sharp descriptions of Blair, her boy-crazy rival, as well as Blair's mother, who organizes makeup-selling parties for fifth-grade girls. As Genie tells her dad of Blair's precocious ways, It's just not my thing. Here's to reading about Genie's sixth-grade year soon.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)