What would you wish for?

You can guess from the cover that Dodger and Me by Jordan Sonnenblick is not your typical story.  You've heard of a genie coming out of a magic lamp, right?  That's more or less what happens in this book, but the genie - actually he prefers the term "bottled American" - happens to be Dodger, a blue chimp with sunglasses and surfer shorts.  Dude!  Willie Ryan is the kids who discovers Dodger and is the only one who can see him.  Willie can easily think of three wishes he'd like granted: get schoolmate Lizzie to quit coming to his baseball games, have his mom stop being so overprotective, and become a star baseball player.  But remember the old saying: "Be careful what you wish for."  There's a message about friendship in the book, but nothing heavy-duty...just a fun read.