  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 10/01/2017 Gr 3–6—A perfunctory magical adventure series starter from the author of the "Janitors" series. Ace was just trying to make a sandwich, but rather than peanut butter, the jar he opens contains a young genie named Ridge. Releasing Ridge binds Ace into a seven-day quest to save the world. Ace and Ridge soon team up with another wishmaker and genie set, Tina and Vale, who are on their own world-saving quest; the foursome ends up crisscrossing the country in pursuit of an evil adult ex-wishmaker and his beleaguered wishmaker son. There is a twist on traditional genie lore in this title: wishes are unlimited for the duration of the quest, but each wish comes with a clear consequence to the wishmaker. The wishmaker then has 30 seconds to decide if the benefit of the wish outweighs the inconvenience, humiliation, or pain of the sometimes-permanent consequence. Unfortunately, while this premise is interesting, the characters are less so. Ace is a generic protagonist who is mostly unsympathetic despite having a mysterious backstory. There's no sense of excitement in the quest that Ace is forced into, and he barely wonders at the magic that is revealed to him. The attempts to inject humor into some of the less dire wish consequences falls flat. Ridge is described as having dark skin, Martina "Tina" Gomez is described as speaking Spanish in one scene, and one other genie is guessed to be Polynesian by Ace, but the other characters' race or ethinic backgrounds are not specified. VERDICT Too frustrating to be fun, but too glib to be taken seriously, with an ending that leaves a lot unresolved questions.—Kacy Helwick, New Orleans Public Library - Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Loading...
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