The Day of the Djinn Warriors (Children of the Lamp Series #4) by P. B. Kerr

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Synopsis

Djinn twins John and Philippa are off on another whirlwind adventure that takes them around the globe and into unknown worlds. And it's a race against time as they attempt to rescue their mother from her fate as the Blue Djinn of Babylon. An aging curse has been placed on their father, and if the twins are gone too long, he'll rapidly become an old man.

Meanwhile, museums all over the world are reporting robberies of valuable jade from their collections, as well as bizarre hauntings.

Children's Literature

Some authors run out of ideas before they complete their series. Sequels become formulaic or rerun some of the same material from earlier works. This cannot be said for P. B. Kerr, whose fourth book in the "Children of the Lamp" series is as novel in subject matter at the first three. Layla Gaunt knows that her children will be determined to stop her from becoming the unfeeling, purely logical Blue Djinn. So before she leaves for Babylon to fulfill that commitment, she casts a "Methusaleh" binding on her husband. According to this spell, if the children leave him, he will experience rapid aging. The problem is, the children are not actually there when she casts the binding. By the time they return, their poor father is in pretty bad shape. Through the help of their Uncle Nimrod and their friend Mr. Rakshasas, they quickly identify a way around the binding's restriction, but it causes one twin to pass the djinn powers to the other and one to leave a body behind and move in the spirit realm. As the twins and their mentors work to reunite the intended-Blue Djinn, Faustina, with her body so that she can take Mrs. Gaunt's place in Babylon before the thirty-day transformation is completed, the action occurs on two planes: terra firma and the spirit world. It also tends to occur in two locations, as the djinn split up, with one team heading out to find Faustina's body while the other seeks her spirit. In the course of their activities, they discover turmoil in the spirit world, theft at the world's leading museums, and hijinx by Faustina's brother Dybbuk. All of this adds up to an almost incomprehensible danger. This is a fast-paced, intriguing read. Readers will thrill at the return ofcharacters such as Groanin and Finlay, as well as the arrival of new characters, including Marion Morrison and Marco Polo. Highly recommended. Reviewer: Heidi Hauser Green