RELIC HAMILTON, GENIE HUNTER

A 12-year-old British boy finds ancient magical lamps and unknowingly restarts a centuries-old supernatural conflict in the latest from former U.K. Children’s Laureate Coelho.

Relic Hamilton, who has Jamaican heritage and wears his hair in a tapered Afro, lives in London with his grandfather above Anansi Antiques, the Soho shop that’s been in their family for generations. It’s filled with treasures that Grandfather collected during his world travels. One day, when Relic is polishing metal objects in the basement, he accidentally releases a powerful evil genie from a brass lamp. Grandfather gets hurt, and Relic is swept up in a clandestine society of genie hunters. Time and space are upended as he’s pushed to his limits, searching for answers about what’s expected of him—a bullied kid who’s trying to save his grandfather and maybe even the whole world. Each short chapter opens with a few stanzas of poetry that set up Relic’s adventures and provide a sampling of award-winner Coelho’s talents as a poet. The momentum of the storytelling, We’s full-page and spot art illustrations, and the combination of prose and poetry come together to create a portrait of an unlikely hero that unfolds in a fantastic middle-grade voice. Readers will arrive at the end impatient for the next series entry. Final art not seen.

A trilogy opener that will grant readers’ wishes for an accessible, enchanting, action-packed fantasy.