Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure 

 

Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure by P.B Kerr is a funny and thrilling adventure about two twelve-year-old twins named John and Phillipa Gaunt who discover that they are djinn, mystical beings who possess extraordinary powers and control all the luck in the universe, when strange things start happening to them and the people all around them. In a dream, their eccentric djinn-uncle, Nimrod, tells them that they are djinn of the Marit tribe, one of the three djinn tribes that chose to be on the side of good and control all the good luck in the universe. He tells them that instead of going to summer school, they must come to London so he can teach them how to harness their newfound powers. But soon after arriving in London, they are on the trail of the ghost of Akhenaten, a long dead pharaoh who enslaved seventy powerful djinn so that he would become all-powerful. But since he is dead, whoever releases the djinn will be granted control over them. John, Phillipa and Nimrod are racing against the most evil djinn tribe, the Ifrit because if the Marit reach first, then the amount of good luck in the world will drastically increase because the lost djinn will be bound to fight for good only. Same thing with the Ifrit. If the Ifrit reach first, the amount of bad luck in the universe will be increased. The question is will John and Phillipa live to see another day, another city and another adventure? Or will they perish?

 

P.B Kerr’s writing style is one that I find very rare. He mixes excellent humor with a gripping storyline and amazing characters, plots and settings to create an adventure book that is a book you really relax with, but it doesn’t get too boring. To do that in a single book is good, but to do the same thing in an entire series is very difficult to accomplish. The writer who does that certainly deserves a pat on the back for a job well done. I have found these traits in only one other series so far which is The Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan. Every chapter has a hilarious name and there are numerous hilarious quotes on every page (I haven’t read any one of the Percy Jackson books yet). My brother pointed out these quotes and chapter names to me while he was reading them.

 

My favorite part of the book was once again the whole book. I tried to think about which one was the best part, but every part was written so well that for me it’s impossible to find a part that I liked more than another part. It kept me hooked from one page to the next, but even though every chapter had a good part, I just can’t decide. Nice job P.B Kerr!

 

P.B Kerr was born in 1956 at Edinburgh and is a Scottish author. He studied at 

Birmingham University before becoming a full-time writer. He has written eleven novels under his full name and the Children of the Lamp series under the name P.B Kerr. He is married to novelist Jane Thyne and lives in London in a house that coincidentally was the home of children’s author Joan Aiken!

 

Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure is a great book, and I am looking forward to reading the other books in the series. For people who like adventure, humor and fantasy, this is the series for you!  

Dejected

Revelation

Trauamtic

Embankment (on the Rhine river)

Embezzle

Eclectic

Pleadingly

Adhesive

Malevolent

Lagging

The Alchemyst, by Michael Scott, is about the legend of Nicholas Flamel, who discovered the secret of eternal life in the pages of the Book of Abraham the Mage. It is the book he swore to protect at all costs. But the book has other secrets too. It contains the knowledge needed to destroy the world. That’s exactly what Dr. John Dee plans to do when he gets his hands on the Book. Humankind won’t know what’s happened until it’s too late. And Sophie and Josh Newman are about to find themselves inexorably drawn into one of the biggest magical battles of all time. The fate of the human race is in their hands.

I would have loved to say something about Michael Scott’s style of writing, but I can’t. It’s very… well, basic. A no-frills style. No cliffhangers, no red herrings, nothing. Don’t get me wrong though. The general book and story is amazing. I’m not saying the book is bland. I’m saying the style of writing is plain, unvarnished. Whether that improves the quality of the book or decreases the quality of the book I don’t know. It depends. It’s a question of opinion. It varies from reader to reader. I personally don’t like those types of books very much. They get boring after a while.

 

My absolute favorite part of the book was actually the first chapter. The first chapter was my favorite part. It surprises even me. In this part, Flamel and Dee are fighting each other in Flamel’s bookshop. Like with Jack Heath, Scott made the most of his extensive vocabulary and gave me an amazing description of the battle between two masters of magic. It felt so real to me that when Dee punched Flamel, I flinched!

 

About the author, Michael Scott. Michael Scott was born on 28^th of September 1959 in Dublin. He is Irish and has written a great many books for young readers as well as for adults.  I also discovered that he has written many drama/romance novels under the pseudonym of  Anna

Dillon! His works have been nominated for several important awards. The Alchemyst is the first book (of six) in the Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series has been nominated for 10 literary awards. The Alchemyst won the 2008 Rhode Island Book Award (Teens) but sadly none of the other books won any awards but the series is to be adapted to films. He has written over a 100 books in his 25 years of being an author. If you don’t read the Alchemyst and other books in the series, you are missing out on a magical roller coaster ride that is truly exhilarating. I am eagerly looking forward to reading The Magician, the second book in the series over the holidays.

Vocabulary Definitions: Pictorial

Innovation

Pavilion

Seminary

Jubilation

Extortion

Innovation

Seminary

Jubilation

Extortion

Pavilion

The Lab

The Lab, by Jack Heath, is a sci-fi thriller about Agent Six of Hearts, a 16 year-old superhuman who is an agent of the Deck, a team of special agents fighting to uphold the Code (a list of humanitarian rules similar to the Geneva Convention) in a city that’s under the iron grip of the ruthless company ChaoSonic. But Six has a deadly secret. He is the product of a Code-breaking and illegal genetic experiment by the Lab, an equally- ruthless division of ChaoSonic. When the Deck begins investigating the Lab, Six tries hard to keep his origins a secret from the other Deck agents. But then he meets Kyntak, a boy with the same genetically engineered DNA. As Six’s life spirals out of control, he must face his most perilous mission yet. And it might not be a one that he survives.

My favorite part of the book was when Six fights a ChaoSonic combat robot in a fight to the death. The robot has enhanced reflexes, and it’s almost impossible to penetrate its body armour. Jack utilized his descriptive powers to the fullest here so I felt like the fight was going on in front of my eyes! This is yet another superb trait that Jack has, an amazing descriptive ability. If I had a million dollars, I would give that and more to him, because he was only 13 when he wrote The Lab. I didn’t like sci-fi that much when I started this book, but once again Jack’s style of writing kept me hooked until the last word.

Jack Heath’s style of writing is one that depends heavily on elaborate twists in the story and dead ends where a reader is left scratching his head. To further spice up the action-packed chapters, he adds steep cliffhangers; near-death scenarios and suspense that mounts up until you can’t take it anymore and you have to turn the page. In that lies the secret to Jack’s success. He writes so that it is incredibly hard to not feel the urge to keep reading. This book was so good that when my mother called me for dinner, I was furious!

Jack Heath was born on August 23 1986 in Sydney. He is writer of young adult fiction and other than his Six of Hearts series he has written the Ashley Arthur series. His work is often compared to the work of Robert Muchamore, author of the CHERUB series and Anthony Horowitz, author of the Alex Rider series. All three authors have the same traits in their stories, which include redemption, coming of age, commercialism, conspiracy, corruption, greed, heroism and many others. Jack says that he writes only to “keep people entertained from the first page to the last.” If that is his goal, he’s certainly achieved it. When Jack was 13, he wrote The Lab to impress a girl who liked reading. He finished the first draft at 17. He sent it to publishers, keeping his age anonymous until he was sure they liked it. For a 17 year-old boy that’s not too bad!

For all you sci-fi lovers out there, if you don’t read this book and the other books in the series, then you’re missing out on some thing really good.

Under a War- Torn Sky

Under a War- Torn Sky, by L.M. Elliot, is a lucid gripping tale about courage, sacrifice, love and loss during the Nazi occupation of Europe during WW2.

Shot down on a dangerous mission in Germany, 19 year-old bomber pilot Henry Forester finds himself in a land infested with people who would find boundless joy in seeing his head on their mantelpiece. Henry is suddenly forced to use all his wits, the kindness of strangers and the resourcefulness and cunning of the French Resistance maquis to survive a perilous journey across Nazi-controlled Europe in order to get back to home and the girl he loves.

The book is written using great vocabulary, but L.M. Elliot wrote the book in such a way that even though endless reams of adjectives can be found on a single page, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what’s going on. I think that she is one of the best authors I’ve read because I didn’t know that this book was inspired by her grandfather until the very last page. I admire her for that; her skill to make a story sound like her own from the first word. It made the book more interesting. However, there was one flaw about this book. In the first few chapters, she spent too many words describing events that need less than 300 words to describe them. This book is very different from other WW2 books that I’ve read. In other books, the protagonist was usually recording events in a diary format. This book is not just a collection of Henry’s experiences, but also a collection of every thought that runs through his head, every emotion that he experiences and every person he meets. That is what makes this book stand out in bold relief from other WW2 books

My favorite parts of the book were the parts that mentioned the kindness of the strangers that helped him before the French Resistance stepped in. I felt happy that in fiction and in real life ordinary people were willing to take extraordinary risk to help people they didn’t know just so that they would see the light of dawn. I felt a twinge of sadness as I read these parts because in real life, some people were not as fortunate as some of the families who sheltered him. If they escaped prosecution, they’d be wanted fugitives the Nazi’s, with their cold-blooded brutality, would not rest until they were caught and when they were, they would be tortured to death or sent to death camps like Ravensbruck and Aushwitz.

L.M. Elliot was inspired to writer Under a War-Torn Sky after hearing stories of her grandfather’s adventures when he was trapped behind enemy lines. Her grandfather was also a bomber pilot during WW2 and was also shot down on a mission to Germany. Under a War-Torn Sky has won several awards which include the Notable Book in Social Studies for Young People (NCSS/CBC), 2002 Jefferson Cup Honor Book, 2002 Winner, Borders’ Original Voices Award for Young Adult Literature, 2001 Best Children’s Books of the Year, 2002.

There was one part at the beginning of the book that touched me. After a nightmare, Henry sings a poem called High Flight to himself to calm himself down. An American RAF pilot who wrote it just before being killed in action wrote this poem. Here it is:

“ Oh I have slipped the surly bonds of earth,

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I’ve climbed and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds-and done a hundred things

You have not dreamed of-wheeled and soared

And swung

High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,

I’ve chased the shouting wind along and flung

My eager craft through footless halls of air.

Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue

I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace

Where never lark, or even eagle, flew;

And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.”