Magic. Check. Kids. Check. Evil plans. Check. 
 The Amulet of Samarkand - first book from the Bartimaeus Trilogy. The story took place in the modern England, where sorcerers and sorceresses exist is a normal thing.Those who had magic will protect the normal people - the commoners. Nathaniel is not a lucky boy. He had lost his parents at the age of youth but also had a paranoia teacher - Arthur Underwood who thought that Nathaniel - his apprentice couldn't summoned an imp. Later, Nathaniel met a young magician named Simon Lovelace, and Simon soon dismiss his magical power like Arthur. Magicians are really arrogant. He learned a lot, and read a lot, and decided to called a 5000 demon, a djinn - Bartimaeus to do his bidding. While learning boring lessons from Arthur, he was also plotting to against his nemesis Simon. He told Bartimaeus to steal Simon's amulet - a very powerful magic things. But the plan soon failed 'cause Simon caught both of them. Arhur was really angry and surprised to learned that Nathaniel can called such a powerful demon to do his will. In the house, Simon suddenly closed the door and started a fire, " Everybody who knew I had the amulet should be kill." Arthur and his wife Martha dead, while Nathaniel was rescued by Bartimaeus. Nathaniel was furious with himself, 'cause he had let Martha dead. Again, he told Bartimaeus to spy on Simon and discovered that Simon will use the amulet in a really evil plan. Both Nathaniel and Bartimaeus will have to save the other magicians, they're the only one who knew the truth... 
 In my opinion, this book was wonderful. It is really breathtaking, and I loved to read about magic. This book is totally different from Harry Potter, and please, don't compare them. In Harry Potter, wizards used wands and spells, while in Bartimaeus series, they draw pentacles, and summoned. The book is well known for its liberal use of footnotes to voice the title character's sarcastic and humor comments, as well as story background. 
 I'm really enjoy it, but it took time to finish it 'cause the books had a lot of difficult words. 
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