The Amulet of Samarkand

Nathaniel is an 11-year-old apprentice to a magician. When he suffers an awful humiliation at the hands of another magician, he studies incantations way beyond his years and summons the djinni Bartimaeus to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from the magician. This story is told in alternating viewpoints, firstly from the first-person viewpoint of the wise-cracking Bartimaeus, a 5000-year-old djinni, and secondly from the third-person perspective of Nathaniel.

I plucked this book from the Independent Reader shelf for a read-aloud book to Luke (my 8-year-old son). It proved a good choice. We both like Bartimaeus and the other snarky little imps who must do a magicians bidding but are always looking for a way out so they can get back at their masters. It's a clever set-up. But I must say, for a book on the Independent Reader shelf, this one includes plenty of juicy vocabulary words. This book doesn't talk down to its audience at all. Occasionally I'd explain a word here and there to Luke, and occasionally he'd huff “I know that word!” Okay, then. I liked this book so much that I've snapped up books 2 and 3.