Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Psssst!!! Come a little closer. I have a secret to share.


the Genie Scheme by Kimberly K. Jones

a review from a writers perspective


Do you ever have things magically disapper? Socks, toys, jewelry, books? Psst . . . . ! Come a little closer. I've got a secret to share with you.

I've done a little research on this "disappearing epidemic" and I found some interesting intel. The answer to this phenomenon? Genies. Yep. That's right.

I learned this info from Janna, a teen who feel like she lives in poverty because her mom drives an old car and they have to shop at second hand stores, showed a random act of kindness to a bag lady. Turns out this wasn't your run-of-the-mill bag lady. Nope! She was a Genie. Apparently when you show kindness to a Genie, this binds them to you as their master.

Janna was finally able to have everything she had ever dreamed about. Unfortunately, she learned very quickly that genies don't just *poof* things out of thin air. Anything that they give to you has to *poof* out of the possession of someone or someplace else. Janna learns that there are consequences to our greed and materialization of our wishes.

So . . . all those socks that you've lost, they've gone to some poor sap that needs to learn how to make better wishes. Missing books? Gone to some lucky reader who has a magical-endless supply of reading material.

Story: The Genie Scheme is a cute and humorous story best suited for the tween reader. I think an older teen audience would think the moral of the story might be too preachy.

Chracterization: The main character has realistic problems and realistic reactions to them, her character was written well. The genie is funny and likeable. I love the Genie!
The only downside to the characterization is that the "bad guys" fall flat. There seems to be little (if any) redeemable qualities in the antagonists making their personalities unrealistic. Also, there seems to be a blanket idea that all "rich" people are self serving and bad.

Voice: Each character had their own distinctive, consistent and believable voice. Great job on voice!

Overall this is a cute, fast and fun read. And with all our hopes and dreams building up in anticipation of the New Year, this is a good book to remind us to "be careful what you wish for because you just might get it!"

That lead me to ask . . . what do you wish for 2011 to bring?

10 comments:

Kelly Polark said...

That sounds like a cute book!
Hmmm, my wishes (besides health and happiness for my fam) are an agent, book deal, and for our house to sell soon. Is that too greedy? ;)

C.R. Evers said...

Hi Kelly, I don't think that sounds too greedy at all. May all your wishes come true this year!

MG Higgins said...

A well-written, nicely balanced review! Ya know, I haven't thought of my goals for 2011. And since it seems like when I set writing goals something entirely different happens, I think I'll make it personal and simple his year: health and joy.

C.R. Evers said...

Thanks MG! I'm in the same boat. I'm keeping it simple too.

Kelly H-Y said...

Great review! My wishes are the same as Kelly's ... minus the house sale! :-)

Mary Witzl said...

I don't want to jinx my chances either, so I'm going to go for health and joy too. But I'll add patience and boundless motivation, since I could use a little more of those. I really hope there are hope and motivation genies out there!

Cynthia Chapman Willis said...

Lovely review! And now I know where all those socks went. : ) As for 2011, I am hoping for more reading time and creative insights. Cheers to 2011!

Christina Farley said...

I like how you broke down your review. Easy to read! I haven't read many MG or tween books lately but I do like to try to read all types so I might have to check this one out.

C.R. Evers said...

Thanks Cynthia and Christina!

Have a great New Year!

Sherrie Petersen said...

Sounds like a cute book. So are genie's the new paranormal go-to character? This is the third book I've heard of with a genie this year!