Relic Hamilton is just your average 12-year-old, living a quiet life with his grandfather above their old antiques shop in Chinatown in London.

Until one day, while polishing some mysterious brass lamps in the basement, something extraordinary happens. Relic feels spine-chillingly cold. Breathless. Scared. And suddenly, a real, live genie stands before him!

But this is no kind, benevolent genie. This genie is evil … and it feeds on hope.

Relic finds himself catapulted to the centre of a fast-paced underground community of genie hunters, led by the excitable Professor Latimer and the tech-savvy Doctor Raphaela. Together, they travel in their one-of-a-kind jet, the Aladdin, secretly chasing rogue genies before they can wreak havoc on the world…

Would you like to find a magic lamp, rub it, and have a genie pop out and grant you three wishes? Well, think again as not all genie’s are nice and kind, some suck the hope out of your body. Plus, what happens to other people and the world when you make your wish?

Twelve-year-old Relic Hamilton is just discovering that not only are genies real but they are not all lovely either when he opens a box hidden in his grandfather’s antiques shop that contains numerous lamps and a genie pops out of one. He is only saved from the bad genie by his grandfather who takes the brunt of the genie’s anger and is now in a coma.

It’s not the only thing Relic learns, though, as he is whisked away to the headquarters of a top-secret group called The Genie Hunters, which it turns out his grandfather was a member of.

Relic Hamilton, Genie Hunter is a fast-paced middle-grade action book that is very clever and imaginative. I can’t say I’ve ever given genie’s a second thought or what happens when someone makes a wish but armed with the knowledge from this book I’ll think I’ll pass if I ever come across one!!

The story is shrouded in mystery and has plenty of twists. It is such good fun and will keep children engaged the whole way through. Relic is an easily likeable character, and you can fully get behind him in his quest. The other characters, including wacky Professor Latimer and half-genie Doctor Raphaela, are amazing, too.

Overall, this is a book any middle-grade adventure reader would love. It is hard to put down once you begin and with more books to follow, this is one series not to be missed.

Joseph Coelho was the Waterstones Children’s Laureate 2022–2024, and is an award-winning poet, playwright and writer. In 2024 he won the Yoto Carnegie Medal for Writing for The Boy Lost in the Maze and was awarded an OBE for his services to the arts, to children’s reading and to literature.

His first poetry collection, Werewolf Club Rules!, won the CLPE Children’s Poetry Award in 2015, and he has been writing and performing ever since. His picture books include If All the World Were… illustrated by Allison Colpoys and the Luna Loves…series illustrated by Fiona Lumbers. His poetry books for children include Overheard in a Tower Block illustrated by Kate Milner, A Year of Nature Poems illustrated by Kelly Louise Judd, and his novel in verse, The Girl Who Became a Tree. Originally from London, he now lives in Edinburgh.