I like the first book a lot. I'm midway through the second book and strapped for time but it is still very good.
It is a very organized kind of fantasy. Magicians are the ruling class and at around twelve years old they are taken away from their parents and go into an apprenticeship. They must never divulge their true name to anyone and it is better if they forget, as true names hold power.
Magicians have little to no magic of their own but they do enslave demons and through that they have a very elaborate magic system. They know the demon's true name and summon it inside a circle carefully drawn on the ground. Then they command the demon to do their bidding.
The plot of the first novel involves a very young magician who gets embarrassed in public. He summons a very able demon named Bartimaeus. He orders Bartimaeus to steal an amulet from the magician who embarrassed him. It goes downhill from there.
It is also worth noting that the point of view switches. When it is with the young magician it is in traditional third person limited. When it is with Bartimaeus it switches to first person with footnotes! Bartimaeus likes to give little insights, often funny, about people or places in history. He's been around for around 3-4 thousand years and has a good many neat nuggets of info to divulge.
If she likes fantasy she'll like it. It's very good and very captivating.
