Children of the Lamp, Book Two: The Blue Djinn of Babylon (review)

Twelve-year-old twins John and Philippa return with a better understanding of the responsibilities (and limitations) of their powers in this sequel to The Akhenaten Adventure (BCCB 1/05). Their relatively calm lives with their djinn mother (who has renounced her powers) and their mortal father are uprooted when an important book is reported missing, and the twins are the only people with whom the thief will negotiate. It is all an elaborate trap, however, and Philippa is kidnapped to be used in a blackmail scheme. Philippa's grandmother, the Blue Djinn, is growing too old to hold her position as all-powerful judge and seeks a worthy successor; although the kidnapped Philippa might do, the real goal is to force her mother (the Blue Djinn's daughter) back into the magical world. Now bereft of his twin, John must decipher the scanty clues about where Philippa is being hidden and rescue his frustrated take-charge sister (who is used to doing the saving). The djinn twins are clever characters and their second adventure, endured while separated from each other, is harrowing and compelling. The overused gimmick of lexical djinnification, adding prefixes to words for coinages such as "djunior" or "djinnadmissable," however, wears thin quickly, as does the extensive focus on the adult characters and their usually pedestrian desires and motivations. Stroud's Bartimaeus Trilogy (Amulet of Samarkand, BCCB 3/04, Golem's Eye, 11/04, and Ptolemy's Gate, 2/06) remains unchallenged as the best new series with djinn main characters, but Kerr taps into a younger audience with this exciting and high-action take on djinnhood from the perspective of children who are still growing into their powers.