Stroud, Jonathan. The Amulet of Samarkand.STROUD stroud n. A coarse woolen cloth or blanket. [After Stroud, an urban district of southwest-central England.] , Jonathan. The amulet amulet (ăm`yəlĭt), object or formula that credulity and superstition have endowed with the power of warding off harmful influences. of Samarkand. (The Bartimaeus Trilogy A company founded in 1979 by Gene Amdahl to commercialize wafer scale integration and build supercomputers. It raised a quarter of a billion dollars, the largest startup funding in history, but could not create its 2.5" superchip. , Book One.) Hyperion. 452p. c2003.0-7868-5255-0. $7.99. JSA JSA - Japanese Standards Association. * Eleven-year-old Nathaniel has been the apprentice of magician Arthur Underwood since he was five, but he is largely self-taught. His pompous pom·pous adj. 1. Characterized by excessive self-esteem or exaggerated dignity; pretentious: pompous officials who enjoy giving orders. 2. and stuffy master constantly underestimates Nathaniel's ability and fails to defend him from humiliation at the hands of fellow magician Simon Lovelace. Nathaniel plots his revenge carefully, summoning a demon called Bartimaeus to steal the Amulet of Samarkand from Lovelace and subsequently humiliate him. But Nathaniel and Bartimaeus get far more than they bargained for as they uncover a plot to overthrow the government and run into a group of "commoner" children who can detect and are stealing magical objects. The story, told alternately in first person by Bartimaeus and from Nathaniel's point of view in third person, is fast-paced and funny, although at times it takes a serious tone. Nathaniel grows from a whiny, petulant pet·u·lant adj. 1. Unreasonably irritable or ill-tempered; peevish. 2. Contemptuous in speech or behavior. [Latin petul and self-involved boy to a character with strength and courage, retaining enough of his former attitude to maintain credibility. Bartimaeus, a demon with an extraordinarily high opinion of himself, tries to maintain that his service is entirely enforced by the summons, but by the end of the book, the reader knows better. Loose ends are deliberately left untied, as this is the first book in a trilogy, a happy prospect for readers of this delightful tale. Donna Scanlon, Libn., County Lib., Lancaster, PA J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers. S--Recommended for senior high school students. A--Recommended for advanced students and adults. This code will help librarians and teachers working in high schools where there are honors and advanced placement students. This also will help extend KLIATT's usefulness in public libraries. *--The asterisk (1) See Asterisk PBX. (2) In programming, the asterisk or "star" symbol (*) means multiplication. For example, 10 * 7 means 10 multiplied by 7. The * is also a key on computer keypads for entering expressions using multiplication. highlights exceptional books. |
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