Emma and the Blue Genie
A genie without a magic nose ring is as small as a desert hedgehog and can’t grant even the tiniest bugsized wish. Emma frees Karim from his bottle prison and wants to help him. The flying carpet brings them to Barakash to find Sahim, the Master of Evil and the ring’s thief. Yallah!
One night, Emma finds a mysterious green bottle floating in the ocean. When she pulls out the stopper, she sets a blue genie free! Most genies grant three wishes, but Karim can’t grant even one anymore. A yellow genie stole his magic nose ring, leaving him small, powerless, and trapped in that bottle. Emma and her noodle-tailed dog have to help Karim get his nose ring—and his magic—back!
- First published 2015
- Reading age Age 8
- Illustrated by Kerstin Meyer
- Publisher Penguin Random House
- Also available as Audio Book
Cornflower-blue smoke billowed from the bottle. More and more of it. Emma stumbled back, and Tristan stuck his head in the sand. The blue smoke grew arms and legs and a head so bald and shiny that it reflected the moonlight.
"Sssaaalaaaaam aalaaaikum!" the ghost from the bottle whispered. " Greeeeetings, oh my fair savior! My name is Karim, Karim the Beardless." And he bowed so deeply that his bald head touched the sand.
"Very . . . pleased to meet you!" Emma stammered. She also bowed (though not quite so deeply). When she straightened herself up again, she noticed that the genie was only a head taller than her.
"I am sorry," Emma said (after all, she didn't know whether genies were easily offended), "but are you still growing? I mean, as far as I remember, the genies in my fairy tales are always huge."
Karim sighed so deeply that the sand stirred up and covered his naked toes. "Ooh, you are so right, my mistress!" he called out dolefully. "And I once was indeed much bigger. I could shake the hand of my caliph while he stood on the highest tower of his palace. His dromedary would sleep in the palm of my hand. Yet now I am as small as a desert hedgehog and as weak as a nosebug." With these words, the genie began to sob so hard that his tears dropped on the sand like rain.
Even Kerstin Meyer does not want to draw pigs all the time, even though she is so good at it. What else do you wish for in a story? I asked her. Camels, One Thousand and One Nights, genies in a bottle ... she said. And I got to work.