The A-Z Djinn Detective Agency

Ashwin Kamath is determined to earn enough money to sponsor his own school trip. Unfortunately, his determination translates into one disastrous idea after another. On the surface, each idea seems perfectly harmless. When the idea turns into action, the madness begins.

Things take a delightful turn when Ashwin finds a book on summoning a djinni. At first, of course, he pooh-poohs the idea of a djinni. Later, though, a little intrigued, he decides to give it a shot. And he summons Zubeida.

The A-Z Djinn Detective Agency had me chuckling time and time again. The characters were all lovely – from the grumpy old man Oz to Mrs Kamath, who is both immensely proud of her son and increasingly annoyed with his ability to get into trouble. The most wonderful character of all, though, is spirited (pun intended) Zubeida. She is an absolute joy to read. She is funny and hot-tempered, and has a delicious tendency to do all the most unfortunate things. She finds djinni school hard to deal with and has to keep referring to her notebook for spells. Even then, she gets them wrong far too often for her liking.

I love stories about friendship, especially unlikely friendships, and The A-Z Djinn Detective Agency won my heart on that front. Ashwin and Zubeida, constantly bickering, but fiercely protective of each other formed the perfect foundation for a crazy story.