FICTION

The Amulet of Samarkand

by Jonathan STROUD
978-1-42311-146-7.
COPY ISBN
Gr 4 Up—This graphic-novel adaptation of the first volume in the popular trilogy concerns Nathaniel, a young apprentice in an alternate-world England run by wizards. When he summons the djinni Bartimaeus to steal the powerful Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself involved in a traitorous plot that reaches the highest levels of power. Inevitably, some of the original story is lost or minimized, yet the essence is retained, something that is sure to please fans of the prose novel. As well, the full-color artwork does an adequate job of depicting the characters and settings of the novel. Unfortunately, both the images and lettering are quite small, cramping a story that begs for a bigger, splashier treatment.—Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Library, Ontario, Canada
Color by Nicolas Cahpuis. The story follows magician's apprentice Nathaniel and his unwilling djinni as they try to stop an overthrow of magician-run Parliament. This dramatically illustrated graphic novel version suffers a little from the loss of Bartimaeus's flippant footnotes--a prominent comic device in the novel--but the smart-aleck djinni still gets in plenty of cracks.
Reviewed by Douglas P. Davey , Mar 01, 2011

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