Eve White: Literary Agent

from GENIE IN TRAINING

"WhenJamie opened his eyes he found that he and Balthazar were standing in themiddle of a market square, surrounded by shops and stalls – some tall andimpressive, others ramshackle. But the strange thing was that every single oneof them seemed to be made out of clouds. Even the ground was made out of cloudsand wisped around Jamie’s feet. Jamie took a tentative step, expecting to fallthrough at any moment, but the clouds held his weight and crunched beneath hisfeet rather like snow. ‘Pretty cool, huh?’ said Balthazar, grinning. ‘W-W-Where am I?’ stammered Jamie. ‘Lampville-upon-Cloud,’ announced Balthazar proudly.‘Capital of the genie world. Right now you’re standing in the grand bazaar.’ Jamie looked around. The grand bazaar was a riot ofcolour. Genies of different shapes and sizes were bustling around and hagglingwith market traders. Some wore blue clothes like Balthazar, others wore green,some wore red and others yellow. The grand bazaar was arranged around a squaretwice the size of Jamie’s school playground. The town of Lampville-upon-Cloudstretched as far as the eye could see and Jamie gazed in amazement at thepristine white towers and spires that dotted the horizon. ‘What am I doing here?’ asked Jamie. ‘You wished to go to the Academy and become a genie,’replied Balthazar. ‘I didn’t mean it!’ protested Jamie. ‘It was justsomething I said.’ ‘How was I to know that?’ Balthazar huffed. ‘Youhumans say a lot of things you don’t seem to mean afterwards. Why say them inthe first place?’ Jamie began to see why Balthazar got into so muchtrouble."