Author(s): Elspeth Tavaci

Middle Fiction 8-12-year-olds

For centuries, caravans of camels have travelled Turkey's Silk Roads piled high with exotic cargoes from India, Arabia and China. When a poor stonecutter called Salahaddin makes a miraculous find, he sets off on a perilous journey along the Silk Road to Istanbul and resorts to telling stories to stay alive. Brimming with scents, sounds and sinister merchants, this rich hoard of stories -- including The Prince, the Nightingale and the Silent Princess, All for a Wrinkled Pomegranate, The Salt and The Golden Watermelons -- is stylishly illustrated by Paul Hess and makes a sparkling introduction to a land still steeped in mystery.