Exquisite illustrations. ( )

Taken from One Thousand and One Nights - that classic collection of Arab and Persian folklore featuring an endless array of stories within a story - Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves follows the tale of a poor but virtuous man whose discovery of a thieves' den leads to a series of confrontations with the Robber Chief and his men. The real hero here, of course, is Ali Baba's clever servant-girl Morgiana, who, with her many stratagems to defeat the thieves, is eventually rewarded...

Although not credited on the cover, Walter McVitty is the author responsible for this adaptation, and his narrative - although somewhat stiff and formal - is engaging enough to entertain. But it is Margaret Early's gorgeous artwork - inspired by tenth-century Persian miniatures - that really makes the book! With fourteen full-page illustrations, as well as decorative borders around each block of text, Early's liberal use of gold embellishment creates an incredibly rich visual feast! Well worth the time of folk and fairy-tale fans everywhere. ( )

This is a great story. It is a little different than the one that I heard as a child, but still the same story. It is about a man who finds a cave that thieves have used to hide their stolen treasure. He takes some home. He goes back and is followed by someone who is greedy and wants the treasure for himself. The greedy man forgets the password and is discovered by the thieves and killed. The other man goes back when he is need of money again and discovers the greedy man. The thieves find out someone else knows about their hideout and set out to find and kill him.
The story reminds me of people who steal things, and how I felt having things stolen from me.
This story could be used to teach the importance of being honest.
It could also be used to discover about other countries and their laws.

A fairy tale from Persia that is good. I think it is a little to graphic for young children. ( )

Early, Margaret. (1988) Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers.
This story is part of a larger collection of called The Thousand and One Nights although this version of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves is in a book by itself. This story is about Ali Baba and how he comes across a cave full of riches that were kept by robbers. He takes a few gold coins and takes them home hoping to be able to use them sparingly so that no one knows where he got them. His greedy brother Cassim finds out about his riches and goes to the cave but is caught by the robbers and killed. This sets off a chain of events in which the robbers continue to look for those that know about their secret cave and set off to kill them. But Ali Baba's wise servant Morgiana manages to kill the chief robber and save them all.
What I think makes this story unique is all the killing that occurs. In many of the pages of this story, someone is being sought out to be killed. When Ali Baba's brother Cassim is cut up into 6 pieces, he is sewn together and I found that to be interesting considering this would be a story read to children now and that detail is quite gruesome. ( )