Eddy Stone and the Mean Genie’s Curse

Eddy Stone and the Mean Genie's Curse by Simon Cherry is a very silly magic story for 6 year olds about a whole seaside town getting exactly what it wished for.

What happens

Eddy goes to a house sale looking for a bargain and comes home with a clay head of a man with a curled moustache. Everyone else thinks it's hideous, which is why he got it cheap.

The box it came in holds junk too. A cook's apron. Wellington boots. An ugly orange lamp that slips out of his hands and smashes, leaving a strange smell behind.

Then Eddy says out loud that he wishes he could read the squiggly writing in the old book he's found. And he can. Except now he can't read anything else. Every ordinary word on every ordinary page has turned to nonsense.

That night, all over Tidemark Bay, people wish for things without thinking. Who hasn't?

A man gets every hair back that ever grew on his head, all at once, down past his knees. A woman gets really, really nice shoes, which turn out to be nice about everything, out loud, all evening (they start with the carpet). Forty-six people win the same lottery. The harbour fills with strawberry ice cream and traps a boat in it.

And at breakfast Eddy's dad says he wishes he could sit in front of the telly all day doing nothing. So he turns into a sofa. A turquoise sofa with big red polka dots, exactly like his shirt.

This is the sort of book that makes a six year old laugh and then read you the bit that did it. Every wish misfires differently and the jokes are set up pages in advance, so a child reading alone gets the satisfaction of spotting one coming.

Nothing here is frightening. Eddy's mum turns back into a teenager and can't remember him, which is odd rather than upsetting, and he handles it by telling her she's had a little accident. Quite sweet of him, really.

The chapters are short, but the sentences are proper sentences, so this suits a reader ready to move up from very early chapter books who wants daft rather than worthy.

What to read next

If your reader enjoys magic that refuses to do as it's told, try The Worst Witch. Mildred Hubble is in her first year at a witches' academy where the rules are endless and nothing she casts comes out as intended.