Title: The Misadventures of a Diamond Thief
Author: Lubaina Bandukwala
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Penguin India (Puffin Books)
Cost: Rs 250

A child’s bookshelf is incomplete without the Middle Eastern folktale of Aladdin and his wish-granting genie living in a lamp. But as author Salman Rushdie says, a djinn may sometimes be way too potent to have a master. True to this, Lubaina Bandukwala’s new children’s novel, The Misadventures of a Diamond Thief, opens a world of time-travelling djinns, ensnared in the sneaky business of thievery and mischief.

Sahabzada Hawa Singh Rafu Chakkar, a ‘misunderstood djinn’ teen, is set on a two-week mission by a conniving king of djinns, Nathulal, to steal the most magnificent diamond, the Shah-i-noor, from the city of Haiderabad. However, Rafu has very real teen conundrums, too. He is a chef at heart. He has no desire to carry the family tradition forward. Rafu is promised he would be allowed his dream, should he perform this one last thieving act. Will he make it?