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!