When eight-year-old Kiara discovers that her recently deceased grandmother left her a genie, trapped in a bottle of garam-masala, she's elated. She'll be a modern-day Aladdin and have someone to do her bidding without argument. And Kiara could really use a little magic. Third grade is just about to start and she's spent the summer worried about being in class with Matt, a bully who seems to have nothing else to do but make Kiara and her best friend Bai's lives miserable. Unfortunately, the genie has decided he's on vacation after working for ten thousand years and is looking for someone to do his bidding. A battle of wills ensues, and Kiara realizes that you don't really need magic to solve your problems.

Mahtab Narsimhan is the award-winning author of several books for young readers, including Embrace the Chicken (Orca), Mission Mumbai (Scholastic), The Tiffin (DCB) and The Third Eye (Dundurn), which won the Silver Birch Award. She was a Writer in Residence at the Toronto District School Board from 2014-2016. Born in Mumbai, Mahtab immigrated to Canada in 1997. She now lives in Vancouver.