Meet Rita. She’s a little girl with very big ideas. Rita wants a genie who will obey her every command and give her all that she dreams of. Alacazam! Alacazee! Zim! Zam! Alacazoo! But what if someone else gets their hands on the genie?

Rita wants a Genie is part of the ‘Rita Wants’ series of books of which to date there are six. In this latest book, Rita decides she wants a Genie because Genie’s have to do as she says not like little brothers.

However, whilst she is thinking about all the lovely things she could ask her Genie to do she realises that they don’t just have one master and what awful things might her little brother make her do if he becomes the Genie’s master too.

What I love about this series is how imaginative Rita is and that in most of the books she ways up the pros and cons of her choices.

The pages are filled with bright, colourful illustrations that stand out and show Rita as she works her imagination and comes up with some wonderful ideas. The story will hopefully make the readers use their imaginations and come up with some fabulous ideas of their own.

Máire Zepf has written 12 books for children, from picture books to a YA verse novel. Winner of the KPMG Children’s Book of the Year, the Réics Carl Award and a White Raven in 2020, her books appear in 8 languages worldwide. The Co. Down author was the first Children’s Writing Fellow for Northern Ireland and is Artistic Director for Quotidian.