#681 of 1001 · June 12, 2022

The book of the day is Nancy Farmer and Gail de Marcken’s Clever Ali. The story begins long ago in Cairo, on the banks of the Nile River in Egypt. Young Ali is excited to begin working with his father, a pigeon keeper for the Sutlan of Cairo. Unfortunately, he disregards his father’s warning and regularly overfeeds one of the pigeons, leading to a disastrous chain of events ending with the loss of the Sultan’s bowl of luscious Syrian cherries. The vengeful ruler demands retribution: Ali must obtain more cherries for the Sultan or be thrown down the oubliette, a deep hole in the throne room leading to the home of an enormous subterranean demon. Farmer drew inspiration for her entertaining text from a purportedly true historical anecdote about a monarch’s craving for cherries. De Marcken’s watercolor art incorporates elements of mosaics, woodwork, plaster, and marble from Cairo’s mosques and Islamic antiquities. #sultan #pigeon #pigeons #cherry #cherries #demon #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbook #beautifulbooks #beautifulbookcovers #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #picturebookart #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks