Skip to main content

Far From Agrabah

Far From Agrabah: An Original Tale
By Aisha Saeed
Disney, 2019. Fiction.

We all know the story of Aladdin and Jasmine and their magic carpet ride around the world. In this brand new adventure, we get to explore this familiar territory in a whole new way with help from Aisha Saeed (author of AMAL UNBOUND). If you've ever wondered why Jasmine doesn't seem more suspicious to meet prince from an entirely new kingdom, or if you've wanted to see more of Jasmine and Aladdin's love story - this is the book for you. When Jasmine grows curious about Ababwa - Ali's kingdom she's never heard of or seen on any maps - Aladdin agrees to extend their carpet ride to visit. With some intervention from Genie - who creates the kingdom of Ababwa from thin air - Aladdin takes Jasmine to visit his homeland. Soon, the kingdom is threatened by a sinister figure eager to strand Aladdin and Jasmine there forever.

Disney fan or not, this new story is a remarkable adventure. Told from alternating perspectives with legends strewn throughout, this book adds a new dimension to a beloved story without undermining the original. Read this before or after going to see the new live-action Aladdin movie.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stand Tall by Joan Bauer

Stand Tall By Siena Siegel by Joan Bauer Putnam, 2002, 182 pgs Realistic Fiction Tree is 12 years old and over 6 feet tall. That would be great if he were a basketball player, but he is not. Dealing with his unusual size is not Tree's only challenge. Tree's parents have recently gone through a divorce, and his grandfather has had his leg amputated as the result of an old Vietnam War injury. The strength of this book is the characterizations. All of the main characters are dimensional and sympathetic. Bauer sets the characters in real and often funny family situations. Best of all is the character of Tree. He is boy with a heart to match his stature. This is a great book for boys or girls ages 9-12, as a read aloud or for individual reading. This book could also be a good Rx book for children whose families are going through divorce, or for anyone who feels like they don't fit in.

Review: The Factory

The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...

Review: Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker

  Cincinnati Lee, Curse Breaker By Heidi Heilig New York: Greenwillow Books, 2025. Fiction. 291 pages. Thanks to Cincinnati Lee's no good, dirty rotten, artifact stealing great great great grandfather, Cincinnati's family is now cursed and Cincinnati feels like it's up to her to break the curse. Which involves trying to steal the artifacts back from museums that her grandfather robbed from graves and archeological sites around the world and return them to their countries of origin. But when Cincinnati's first artifact stealing mission goes awry, she decides it might be more effective to steal an all-powerful artifact herself that she can use to break the curse - The Spear of Destiny. Unfortunately her race for the spear will pit her against art smugglers and thieves intent on finding the ancient artifact themselves. If you are looking for an Indiana Jones read-alike, this is the perfect for you! Heavy on the adventure with similar levels of mysticism to those seen in th...