The Genie Scheme - Hardcover

Kimberly K. Jones is the author of Sand Dollar Summer, which earned two starred reviews, was named a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and was chosen by Booklist as one of the Top Ten First Novels for Youth. She lives in Monkton, Vermont. Visit her online at kimberlykjones.com.

Twelve-year-old Janna is fed up with the constant struggle to get by on her mom's paltry income. Disenchanted with secondhand clothes and thrift stores, Janna is ready for change. That change, however, springs from an unlikely source. It comes not from her dream of winning the lottery but evolves out of Janna's impulsive act of generosity toward an elderly bag lady. The curmudgeonly geriatric turns out to be a thousands-of-years-old genie with an attitude, jaded by the excesses of human greed. Not your usual tween offering, Jones's tale delves into the perils of homelessness, the poverty of lives filled with monetary wealth but lacking substance and the necessity of effecting a positive change. What makes this tale palatable despite its weighty moral is readers' ability to relate to Janna. Spunky and slightly self-absorbed, Janna wishes first for a closet full of the newest fashions. Under the gruff tutelage of the genie, Janna eventually recognizes the interconnectedness among all people. What Janna chooses to do with her wishes will keep readers engaged until the tale's satisfying conclusion. (Fantasy. 8-12)