A Book Report.........

Children Of The Lamp Book Report

In this book report I am going to tell you about 'Children Of The Lamp: The Akhenten Adventure' by P.B. Kerr. It is a book about history and has magic. It is fiction.


The setting of the book is in London, Cairo, and Antarctica. These are real places, however, characters and circumstances are sometimes magical. In Cairo there are pyramids. Cairo is very hot in this book, the temperature is up to 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Cairo is very busy and has markets and camels. There is a tomb close to Cairo called 'The Tomb Of Akhenten'. The tomb has a blue scorpion that is encrusted with jade. The tomb is brown with a lot of ancient artifacts. There is a lot of sand everywhere in Cairo with palm trees and sand dunes. In London there are museums, and the museums are full of people. The museums have Egyptian artifacts from the 17th century. In the book it is a chilly summer in London. In London there are small buildings and plenty of gardens. Antarctica is snowy, cold, and has ice burgs. Antarctica has seals, walruses and narwhales. The setting of the book is always changing. Each location is very different with different climates.

John and Philippa Gaunt are twins from America. They live in New York. John is 12 years old, and Philippa is ten minutes younger. John has straight brown hair, and he likes to wear black. Philippa has red wavy hair, and she likes to wear pink. They get along pretty well. They live with their parents. They go to school and are in seventh grade.

Nimrod is another character in the story. Nimrod is John and Philippa's uncle. Nimrod likes to wear red. Nimrod lives in London.

Iblis is another character, and he is human. Iblis is the leader of a tribe called the "Ifrit". Iblis has a cobra that bit a boy named Brekeesh on the foot. Iblis is described as handsome and an arrogant-looking Englishman. He has a hooked nose and smallish fair beard. He is described as "smelling strongly of snobbery and snake".

Baksheesh is the son of Hussein Hussaout who is a archeologist. His feet turn blue when he is bitten by the cobra.

Akhenten is a dead Pharaoh. Akhenten has black hair, almond shaped eyes, a long face, thick lips, dropping jaw, long swanlike neck, sloping shoulders, large pot belly with huge thighs. He is ugly. He is the 4th king of Egypt in the 18th century. He is known as the "Hectic Pharaoh". He is not a djinn, instead a magician. Iblis and Akhenten are the twins' enemies from the time they first met.

The theme of this book is that the twins learn that if you get everything you could wish for, you still wouldn't be happy.

The book starts when John and Philippa start their adventure in their house. They name their Rottweiler dogs "Winston" and "Elvis". The dogs were previously named Alan and Neil. They change the names because they don't think Alan and Neil sound like dog names.
Then the twins go to the dentist and the dentist tells them they have wisdom teeth that have to have them taken out. Wisdom teeth are teeth that are supposed to come in later in your life, "when you are wiser". The wisdom teeth make John and Philippa djinn. Djinn is another name for genie.
After this the twins have a dream where they are on a beach with a big building. Nimrod, their uncle, is in the the building and he tells them to come up but there are no stairs. Nimrod conjures a staircase because he is a djinn in real life and in the dream. After they have the dream the twins go to London alone. They go because of the dream. They think they should see Nimrod after the dream.
After they meet Nimrod they go to Cairo with Nimrod to see Iblis and Akhenten, and to find Akhenten's tomb. They encounter Iblis on the way, but Akhenten does not appear in his tomb. After Cairo, the twins and Nimrod go to London again to search for the Sekhem Scepter. The Sekhem Scepter holds 70 ancient djinn that can stop Akhenten's ghost from turning everyone into slaves. The Sekhem Scepter is hidden somewhere in the British Museum. Akhenten appears for the first time in the museum with a baboon ghost and a cobra ghost. At night John, Nimrod, and Philippa come out of a coke bottle that has been left in the museum after closing time. They find Akhenten and Nimrod is bitten by the baboon ghost and becomes trapped in a canopic jar. The twins release the 70 djinn by solving a hieroglyphic puzzle. The djinn capture Akhenten and put him in the jar with Nimrod.
After this happens in the museum the twins go to Antarctica to freeze Akhenten who is trapped in the canopic jar with Nimrod. A canopic jar is a covered urn used in ancient Egyptian burials to hold the entrails from an embalmed body. To get to Antarctica they travel by plane. After Akhenten is frozen along with Nimrod, a polar bear arrives and comes close to eating John and Philippa. Then John has a idea. The idea is to wear space suits and rescue Nimrod from Akhenten. The reason John chose space suits is because space suits can keep them from freezing in the jar when they go in the jar.
They manage to release Nimrod. After they release him they all go to London and Nimrod sends them back home on an airplane. He thinks their parents missed them.
Throughout the book they go through challenges like defeating Iblis in Cairo, and Akhenten in Antarctica. At home John and Philppa tell their family everything that happened. Their parents feel relieved that John and Philppa are alright.

I liked the book because I like Egypt, Antarctica, and magic. There are all of those in the book. I liked Egypt because I like pyramids. I like pyramids because of the tunnels that run through them. I like Antarctica because it snows there all year. I already knew things about Antarctica and Egypt and I learned more from 'Children Of The Lamp.' I recommend this book to fiction readers who also like history and magic.