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Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
Rendered in the style of authentic Persian miniatures from the time of the Arabian Nights, Margaret Early's exquisite illustrations and decorative borders, enhanced with gold, make a perfect accompaniment to this timeless story.
32 pages, Hardcover
First published March 25, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 28, 2019
What a choice for a bedtime story. Neo chose to have me read this ancient tale, but we had no idea things would get so interesting. Ali Baba is a poor man, grateful for all he has. When he is in the forest one day, he notices a large group of thieves who have a hidden cache of riches. The secret place can only be opened with a special password. Ali Baba is able to gather some riches for himself and his family, but does not want to be overly greedy. Accidentally, Ali Baba passes the information along to his brother, whose greed end up getting him killed by these thieves. Still, they want more blood, vowing that they will kill Ali Baba for taking part of their riches and knowing how to locate the cache. Numerous attempts at killing him fail, with Ali Baba having a great deal of help from his maidservant. By the end, a great deal of blood has been spilled, perhaps more than all the riches were worth. Neo commented that this story, while perhaps a long-ago tale, is NOT for kids, especially when they are getting ready for sleep. I suppose this kid is onto something, as violence never solves anything. Still, the story was quite exciting and the pictures were captivating. Well done, even if the violence factor worried young Neo a tad!
April 9, 2011
How Good Is Your Repartee? (1)
Hanging out being witty all day on Goodreads is no joke [pauses for laughter], and without constant practice you'll quickly become exhausted. In this occasional series, loosely inspired by the Patrice Leconte movie Ridicule, I'm going to provide you with useful examples to hone your already rapier-sharp ésprit. You can't afford not to read it! So, here's #1:
Your partner is making dinner, and is trying to get the top off a bottle of sesame seed oil. She appeals to you for help. What do you say?
Hanging out being witty all day on Goodreads is no joke [pauses for laughter], and without constant practice you'll quickly become exhausted. In this occasional series, loosely inspired by the Patrice Leconte movie Ridicule, I'm going to provide you with useful examples to hone your already rapier-sharp ésprit. You can't afford not to read it! So, here's #1:
Your partner is making dinner, and is trying to get the top off a bottle of sesame seed oil. She appeals to you for help. What do you say?
January 11, 2020
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, retold by Walter McVitty, illustrated by Margaret Early.
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.
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.
May 10, 2023
I forget how violent old stories can be (a lot of cutting off of heads, etc), but excellent story and interesting illustrations.
August 12, 2025
Very brutal. The servant girl is the real hero.
March 1, 2016
Title: Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
Author: Walter McVitty
Illustrator: Margaret Early
Genre: Non-European Folktale
Theme(s): Courage, family, greed
Opening line/sentence: “Long ago, in the land od Persia, there lived two brothers, Cassim and Ali Baba.”
Brief Book Summary:
This story is about two brothers; one who is wealthy and greedy and one who is poor and humble. One day the humble and poor brother finds treasure and his brother finds out and tries to take it all, which leads to his death. Then, the mean who the treasure belongs to are after the poor man but his slave fights them off and saves his life. Then, to replay her, the poor man has to girl marry his son and they all shared the wealth.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)
This is a beautiful edition of the classic tale from The Thousand and One Nights . Early's highly detailed, bordered illustrations offer tiny geometric mosaics in each picture, and combine dark greens, salmon pink, red, white and bronze to great effect. The characters, musical instruments and settings are all well suited to the tale. The book, however, is marred by complicated prose; the sentences are cluttered with grammatical turns and bends that slow the pace: ``Thus it was that the robber chief, disguised in a long beard, came to be invited to eat in the house of the man he planned to kill.'' Sentences like this carry a certain weight and suspense, but as a staple of the prose style, they fail. Fortunately, the art alone is worth the price. The characters Morgiana and brave Ali Baba come through with great charm. All ages. (Mar.)
(PUBLISHER: Abrams (New York:), PUBLISHED: [1989].)
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
I could only find one review for this book
Response to Two Professional Reviews:
I enjoyed reading this review and seeing their point of view on the text. I agree that the text does not flow as easily as I would have liked it too, especially because it may be challenging for young readers to get through smoothly. As far as the illustrations go, that was my favorite part of the book. They were extremely detailed and included lots of different colors. They definitely capture the reader’s attention because there is so much to look at and take in. Every picture is also bordered with a square outline.
Evaluation of Literary Elements:
The pictures in this book really stood out to me because they are extremely detailed and intrinsic. Each picture is bordered with gold and at least two other colors. The picture always appears on the right hand side of the page with the text on the left page. The text is also always bordered with colors that match the picture on the other side. I would have this book in my reading corner but I would not use it as a read aloud considering there are several murders. Something interesting that I noticed was the size of the text is always the same as the size of the illustration on the other page.
Consideration of Instructional Application:
For this book I would focus on the theme of greed. I would have a discussion with the class about the importance of sharing and being a good friend. Then, I would have the children work on their sharing skills by pairing up and building something together using different materials such as popsicles sticks, puffy balls, pipe cleaners, stickers, yarn, etc. The children would have to decided on what they want to make together and share the materials.
Author: Walter McVitty
Illustrator: Margaret Early
Genre: Non-European Folktale
Theme(s): Courage, family, greed
Opening line/sentence: “Long ago, in the land od Persia, there lived two brothers, Cassim and Ali Baba.”
Brief Book Summary:
This story is about two brothers; one who is wealthy and greedy and one who is poor and humble. One day the humble and poor brother finds treasure and his brother finds out and tries to take it all, which leads to his death. Then, the mean who the treasure belongs to are after the poor man but his slave fights them off and saves his life. Then, to replay her, the poor man has to girl marry his son and they all shared the wealth.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1:
Publishers Weekly (Publishers Weekly)
This is a beautiful edition of the classic tale from The Thousand and One Nights . Early's highly detailed, bordered illustrations offer tiny geometric mosaics in each picture, and combine dark greens, salmon pink, red, white and bronze to great effect. The characters, musical instruments and settings are all well suited to the tale. The book, however, is marred by complicated prose; the sentences are cluttered with grammatical turns and bends that slow the pace: ``Thus it was that the robber chief, disguised in a long beard, came to be invited to eat in the house of the man he planned to kill.'' Sentences like this carry a certain weight and suspense, but as a staple of the prose style, they fail. Fortunately, the art alone is worth the price. The characters Morgiana and brave Ali Baba come through with great charm. All ages. (Mar.)
(PUBLISHER: Abrams (New York:), PUBLISHED: [1989].)
Professional Recommendation/Review #2:
I could only find one review for this book
Response to Two Professional Reviews:
I enjoyed reading this review and seeing their point of view on the text. I agree that the text does not flow as easily as I would have liked it too, especially because it may be challenging for young readers to get through smoothly. As far as the illustrations go, that was my favorite part of the book. They were extremely detailed and included lots of different colors. They definitely capture the reader’s attention because there is so much to look at and take in. Every picture is also bordered with a square outline.
Evaluation of Literary Elements:
The pictures in this book really stood out to me because they are extremely detailed and intrinsic. Each picture is bordered with gold and at least two other colors. The picture always appears on the right hand side of the page with the text on the left page. The text is also always bordered with colors that match the picture on the other side. I would have this book in my reading corner but I would not use it as a read aloud considering there are several murders. Something interesting that I noticed was the size of the text is always the same as the size of the illustration on the other page.
Consideration of Instructional Application:
For this book I would focus on the theme of greed. I would have a discussion with the class about the importance of sharing and being a good friend. Then, I would have the children work on their sharing skills by pairing up and building something together using different materials such as popsicles sticks, puffy balls, pipe cleaners, stickers, yarn, etc. The children would have to decided on what they want to make together and share the materials.
Read
June 20, 2011This tale takes readers back in time to ancient Persia where Ali Baba finds the hiding spot for the treasure stolen by a band of thieves. When Ali’s brother is killed trying to steal a great deal of valuables from this hideout, Ali must not let on that he knows the location of the stolen goods, but still retrieve his brother’s body. The robber chief spends the rest of the tale trying to find Ali Baba. This tale addresses the traditional story issues of obtaining rewards for good behavior and punishment for bad behavior. It does contain violence, but it is neither gruesome nor overly-scary. While many versions of this tale have been published, this version features illustrations by Margaret Early. The illustrations are quite ornate and realistic, with a special gold element throughout to add a distinct shine. The only flaw in the illustrations is that the characters demonstrate little emotion in their faces.
January 26, 2011
From this story is where we get the famous phrase "Open Sesame", which you might recognize from one of the Aladdin movies. I didn't enjoy this much, nothing too exciting or different from the other books I've been reading. You really start to notice some reoccurring themes in these children's books.
September 29, 2013
Tale of the Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves is very interesting. I liked her character Mercan she is very smart and wise, thanks to its cunning Ali Baba remained alive. I am very glad that the end of the story she married the son of Ali Baba
March 13, 2015
The illustrations are boring - largely because of the choice of scene. Seems like no action is depicted, which is strange considering how exciting the story is. There are much better versions to be found.
April 15, 2010
A bit on the violent side, but a great story! The patterns in the illustrations are great.
February 1, 2018
Eric Kimmel's edition features an excellent retelling, including details and characters that I had not known about before.
November 2, 2017
This edition tells the classic without skipping any details. It has enough pictures and suspense to maintain the interest of a young reader.
March 18, 2016
04/05: Margaret Early's illustrations are lovely. They remind me of Demi's.
Read
March 1, 2018Detailed and interesting.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews