Banished to the back yard to play outside, the little boy is unimpressed as he looks at the empty, bare expanse of grass. But when he spots a little snail, picks it up and rubs the dirt off it he gets the surprise of his life. Suddenly the snail comes to life declaring itself to be a "wonderful, magical super-cool" snail, and, providing he follows the rules - that the wish must rhyme with 'snail' - it can grant the little lad's wish!
Immediately the boy launches into a list of things that many children would love - but he ignores the part about them rhyming with snail, asking for things like "a robot butler with a built-in TV screen and cola that shoots out its eyes!" And as each wish gets more extravagant, the Genie Snail counters with things that do follow the rules like "a mouldy toenail" or "a lifetime of leafy green kale." Whether they actually get on the same page and the boy get his wish is a discovery for the reader to make...
Even though the snail cannot interpret the boy's wishes, illustrator Chris Kennett has does so in a most engaging way that bring both wishes and counter-offers to life in a way that add action, humour and delight as young readers explore the details.
As well as being a fun read that encourages the young reader to join in by imagining what they might wish for, this is also a great opportunity to explore words that do rhyme with "snail" regardless of their spelling - (older children could learn about homophones as they build both vocabulary and spelling awareness) ) - and perhaps use Genie Snail's final comment to imagine what might happen if they found a genie of a different sort in their garden, providing more opportunities and context to explore rhyming words and perhaps artwork...
32 pages 9781923141445 Ages 4-7
Keywords: snails, magic, humor, wishes, rhyme, fun, imagination, 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, 7 year old
Recommended by: Barbara Braxton, Teacher Librarian, New South Wales AUSTRALIA
Available in Australia
