The Amulet of Samarkand (Bartimaeus Graphic Novel Series #1) Book

Nathaniel, an eleven-year-old magician-in-training, thinks he's ready to take on more challenging spells. With revenge against the proud and ambitious Simon Lovelace on his mind, he masters one of the toughest spells of all and summons Bartimaeus, a 5000-year-old djinni, to assist him. But summoning Bartimaeus and controlling him are two different things entirely, and when Nathaniel sends the djinni to steal Lovelace's greatest treasure, the Amulet of Samarkand, he finds himself caught in a whirlwind of magical espionage, murder, and rebellion.

Jonathan Stroud, along with acclaimed comic books-writer Andrew Donkin and artists Lee Sullivan and Nicolas Chapuis, turns the beloved and internationally best-selling first book in the Bartimaeus trilogy into a spellbinding graphic novel sure to excite and delight fans across all magical planes.

Publishers Weekly

Nathaniel is a 12-year-old magician in training in an alternate London where magic is real and perilous creatures and artifacts abound. Bartimaeus is a cocky, 5,000-year-old djinni whom Nathaniel summons to help him get revenge against an arrogant adult wizard. The plot involves stealing the powerful amulet of Samarkand, which Bartimaeus does, setting off a series of increasingly dangerous events. Stroud's popular prose fantasy series elevates a familiar situation with multileveled characters; sharp, evocative writing; and a fascinating setting of wizardly government that, far from being wondrous, is more often mundane or selfish. This graphic novel adaptation by Donkin and Sullivan wisely keeps all the virtues of the original, adding fantastic visuals of this complicated world and colorful characters. While sometimes the narration goes on longer than is strictly necessary when a picture is supposed to be telling a story, it's usually in the service of Stroud's lively dialogue. The comics version doesn't quite improve the tale--Sullivan's characters tend to have only a handful of expressions--but it does justice to the imaginative, engrossing original. Ages 9 12. (Oct.)