Elisabeth Dahl

Although this chapter book was definitely geared more toward juvenile to adolescent girls, I really liked this book! The first reason I liked this book was for the skillful integration of technology on the pages via the intermittent addition of a text messaging format. For example, one of the main character, Geanie’s, blog posts revolved around the topic of what she and others wished for around Christmas time and the comments on the blog turned into a discussion that resembled a text message conversation on the page of the book where dialogue like “My Mom says once you’re an adult you wish for abstract things…” was and a boy, Jack, replied with “Are you saying I need to GROW UP??? LOL.” This integration of a text messaging format made reading these parts of the book fun and more compelling to me because I read blogs a lot and the cadence these text messaging parts add to the book felt familiar and as if I was taking a break from reading and listening in on a conversation, much like how I feel when I read comments on Facebook! The second reason I liked this book was for the awesome idea the book revolved around. This book is very new, and the author skillfully made it relate to her target audience, along with myself, by making it about a young girl who starts and continues to run a blog about her fifth grade class. I have never heard of or read a book that had such a current topic and technological integration before I read this book and this aspect made going back and reading the book more enjoyable because of the anticipation it created through being excited for wondering what she was going to write about and how she was going to view her fifth grade year in school. Even though the end of the book did not address this question and the book took a much different route in its story line, I was heavily fixated on the idea of a young girl being given the responsibility of running a blog for her class and how that would affect her. Overall, the big idea of this book was that although your hopes, dreams, and wishes may be hard to figure out at a young age, taking time to reflect on your experiences and the others around you can truly help put your own life into perspective.… (more)

Fifth grade is a pretty tumultuous time for most kids, and it’s no different for Genie Haddock Kunkle. Her BFF Sarah is spending less time with Genie and more time with new friend Blair, her brother has grown distant while her father has jumped back into the dating pool, training bras are suddenly everywhere, and Junk Food Lunch has been discontinued due to the moms of the PTA. In the midst of all this upheaval, Genie has been elected class blogger and tasked with documenting the dreams and wishes of her fellow students. Is Genie up for all the challenges that life is suddenly throwing her way?

Author Elisabeth Dahl has constructed a pitch-perfect story for the tween crowd that realistically documents the ups-and-downs of fifth grade: cliques are appearing, old friendships are breaking up while new ones are forming, bodies are changing, and everything is suddenly turned on its head. Even though its been a (very) long time since I experienced all of this for myself, it certainly felt familiar! The story is told from the point of view of 10-year-old (going on 11) Genie Kunkle, who is a sweetly genuine heroine. She quietly observes everything going on around her (the changing loyalties of her classmates, the drama brought by new student Blair, her father’s new romance) and tries to make sense of it all. She comes across as a solid, earnest kid who is determined to do the best she can – especially with the class blog that she has been elected to write – and to help others along the way.

Genie and her friend Sarah come up with the screen name “Genie Wishes” for the class blog, and I enjoyed the way the blog entries were incorporated into the story. They were short and sweet, each one ending with a little wish for her classmates and a few comments from them. I liked the way the blog opened up Genie’s world a bit; she discovered other blogs and became a big fan of one written by a 7th grader called Eve’s Reads, plus she had to learn how to deal with the drama of a class rival starting a blog and making some not-very-nice comments about her. I thought this issue was handled especially well by Dahl, as she showed Genie’s distress and how she found support in unexpected places before eventually confronting her rival about the negativity.

I also thought the friendships were depicted realistically, as Genie struggled with the way her best friend Sarah was leaving her behind and heading into Blair’s world of make-up, diets and boys. Blair was obviously a “mean girl/queen bee” in the making, and once she entered Genie’s life the lines were drawn and loyalties shifted. But it was nice to see that, just like in real life, Genie found some great new friends who shared her interests and were there for her when she needed them to be.

This book is clearly written for the tween crowd with its look at questions and concerns that effect middle-graders. Dahl has even included little lessons about such things as the Amish (Genie’s English class takes a field trip across the state line into Pennsylvania), bridges (a class assignment is given to design and build one with toothpicks), and the joys of Health Class – all of it explained in a relatable manner. Sentence structure is simple and direct, vocabulary and phrasing are easily understandable for the age level, and line drawings are scattered throughout to highlight things for more visual readers (the aquarium costume Genie and her grandmother make looks really neat!). Yet nothing is so simple that an adult can’t enjoy reading it right along with the kids.

If there was any issue I had with Genie Wishes, it was the story thread involving Genie’s brother Ian. He wasn’t visible a lot of the time, but when he was it was apparent that he was resentful of his dad moving on and dating even though his mom passed away years earlier. I thought this was kind of an important issue, and it would have been nice to have it explored a little bit more. Instead Genie acknowledges that Ian has grown distant and seems lackluster when it comes to dad’s new girlfriend Margo, but she never really questions his attitude and so there is never any resolution to Ian’s story. Other than this, however, all the other story threads are tied up nicely by the end.

Elisabeth Dahl has fashioned a warm and realistic coming-of-age story in her young adult debut Genie Wishes. Perfectly structured for middle-graders, the story features a genuinely likable protagonist in 10-year-old Genie Kunkle, a simple (but not too simple) writing style, and plenty of issues and concerns that tween readers will relate to. A sweetly magical debut for the middle school crowd.… (more)