Graphic Myths and Legends: Ali Baba: Fooling the Forty Thieves: an Arabian Tale

Graphic Myths and Legends

by Marie P. Croall

This graphic novel tells a classic tale from Arabian Nights, a famous work of Middle Eastern literature. Ali Baba, a poor man who makes his living selling wood, stumbles upon a secret cave where 40 bandits have been hiding priceless treasures. He enters the cave and decides to take some treasures for himself. Ali Babas wife is thrilled at their newfound fortuneuntil she accidentally reveals the secret to Ali Babas wealthy brother and sister-in-law. When the secret of the cave gets out, it unleashes a series of events that will change Ali Babas life forever.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Historical Fiction, Comics, Childrens

48 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good retelling of the Ali Baba story. It does feature violence (a man is killed, some men are scalded and killed by oil, etc.). However, it's all age-appropriate (if your child isn't squeamish) and the graphic novel format makes the story accessible.

[Umar · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good graphic novel. This is a good way to interest juveniles into classical Arabic tales.

[David Berry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short and sweet
Simple but clear illustrations

[Youssouf Kamil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have listened its audio version currently and it's amazing. Sort of reminds me my childhood tale stories. I wish i read it when i was a child.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wouldn’t have expected it, but the graphic novel format lends itself well to the story of “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” from the Arabian Nights. The tale follows Ali Baba as he discovers the secret lair of a group of thieves and steals from it. Later his brother’s wife discovers that Ali Baba has money and urges her husband to find out the secret, which he does. After hearing it he, of course, goes to the lair as well. He does not fare as well as Ali Baba and is brutally murdered by the thieves. Ali Baba retrives his brother’s body and the thieves come after him. Luckily, Ali Baba has a servant who is much more clever than him or than the thieves and through various observations and smart moves she repeatedly saves her master’s life.

Croall and Hilinski do a brilliant job telling this story with sequential art. I was particularly impressed at their use of panels without speech bubbles or much action to relay mood and moments of consideration and contemplation. Since this is actually a story without a whole lot of action (part of the story is almost more like a chess game being played between Morgiana and the thieves), those moments are extremely important. I was also impressed with the look of the world they created. I’m so used to illustrations for stories from the Arabian Nights where the girls all look like they just stepped out of a harem and the men are muscle-bound and always armed to the teeth that it was extremely refreshing to find that everyone in here looked like a real person. The women were wrapped up as women actually would have been! Everyone had extremely light skin (Ali Baba is almost as fair as I am), but I guess you can’t have everything. The only piece of art in the book that I actually thought didn’t fit at all was the cover art. It doesn’t represent either the character or the story well at all, and that’s a shame.

This telling of the story highlights one of the major oddnesses of it - the fact that Ali Baba gets all the credit. He really doesn’t do much of anything. Actually, he’s very dubiously moral in stealing from the thieves in the first place, so it’s hard to feel too bad for him when they start to cause him trouble. The real hero of this tale is Morgiana, the servant girl who manages to both outsmart everyone else and get to stick a knife into the bad guy, killing him without help. After reading this, I’m left wondering why she wasn’t on the cover of the book instead of ineffectual Ali Baba.

This was an excellent, dynamic telling of this story and I highly recommend it. Not only would it be great paired with more traditional versions of Arabian Nights stories, but it would be a great heroic story with some unusual twists as well. References from “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” so pervade our popular culture (it seems like every cartoon character ever has said “open sesame” at some point) but few people really seem to know the story anymore. This is such an approachable, well done version that I see no reason why that couldn’t be changed!

[Holland Crook · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first graphic story I can ever remember reading, and I really enjoyed it. I think the pictures do a wonderful job at telling the story, so even if students get lost they can continue following with their eyes and probably still understand what was going on. I really enjoyed the idea of a graphic story as well, I think that sometimes kids like to read different material than what I read so it was good for me to expand my horizons.

[John Love IV · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short graphic novel of Ali Babba and the forty thieves. Covers the story well and has nice artwork but short.

[Sue Monroe]

graphic novel revealing the story behind the phrase 'Open sesame'

Good to have in library just to make this folk tale accessible (Arabian Nights)

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loves it when my mom reads Arabian Nights to me as a kid so I was pleased to see this in my 3 year old's stack at the library.

[Maddie's_Bookshelf · Rating 2 out of 5]

I simple a well laid out little comic book. It was cool to learn the story of Ali Baba.