DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH

You thought you knew Aladdin?

Forget flying carpets, lamps with resident genies, princesses, and singing. Readers first meet the legendary character as an infant. His parents flee across the desert, desperately seeking refuge for their very special son. His mother slips a necklace—bearing a charm shaped like half of a beetle—around her child’s neck, hoping the amulet will protect him. When readers next meet Aladdin, he’s 12 and living with nomadic camel and goat herders. He enjoys his life yet believes he doesn’t belong here and longs for a permanent home. He’s still wearing the charm, his only memento of his parents. Arriving with his foster family in the Middle Eastern city of Agrabah, Aladdin is separated from them by a parade and a sandstorm and eventually falls in with a young band of urchins who live with and are cared for by Mukhtar, who teaches them to “rescue” precious objects and who will prove to be key to shaping Aladdin’s destiny. So will an evil sorcerer who wears a half-beetle talisman himself and requires Aladdin’s half for his own nefarious purposes. This novel delivers a briskly paced, suspenseful, action- and magic-filled adventure in which Aladdin, a well-realized, relatable protagonist, discovers his extraordinary true identity as the “Diamond in the Rough” and finds true friends. The Middle Eastern setting is evoked well, with references to food and clothing.

If not a carpet ride, an entertaining journey readers will appreciate.