January Book Report, Pt. 4

Children of the Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure has a few different themes, at least that I saw. Some were the kind that were glaringly obvious, but some were a little bit harder to see. The biggest one theme, I think, has to be that there are things that are more important in this world than just one person.
The reason I thought that this was such a big one is the fact that, throughout the entire book, the twins are still just 12 years old. If going on a cross-continent adventure with plenty of danger to possibly save the world is hard for somebody who's done it before, just imagine how hard it is to do it at 12 years old. I mean, in this entire school, how many people have even been off this continent? Probably a good chunk, but it was probably for vacation, hey, no pressure there. Anyways, if I had to go on this trip, I probably would've quit after the first part of the journey, right after a king cobra is found on John's suitcase handle. But even if I somehow stuck it out after that, I definitely would've quit after Nimrod is captured and imprisoned by Iblis. That's just too much for me. But somewhere along the line, I think John and Phillipa figured out that this adventure was bigger than just the two of them being scared, it was about protecting the world from all of the bad luck that could happen if they simply got scared and just quit.
I think this book sort of reminds me of a lot of others, theme-wise, in the fact that people learn some things are bigger than themselves. But this is the first one that I have read that has done it with djinn. Sure, there are books about wizards, normal kids with no powers whatsoever, talking animals, but I have never read about djinn before this. I mean, Arabian Nights, which is mentioned several times in the book, obviously has some genies, but I personally have never read it, and I don't think too many other middle schoolers have, either.
One of the smaller themes I noticed is almost the same as the first one I mentioned, but not quite: learning to face your fears. For instance, like I noted earlier, Nimrod was trapped in an ancient tomb, and since djinn are claustrophobic, you can see the issues. But he manages to stick it out, and it works out. Another time, Phillipa is scared of mice, but when she tests the headband in the French person's hair (which is really a snake), she has to conjure up one to trick it into revealing itself.