Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves ─ From the One Thousand and One Nights

Ali Baba put down his axe and wondered if the magic words really would have any effect on the massive stone door blocking the entrance to the cave. He stood up tall, and in his loudest and most commanding voice shouted 'Open sesame!' Ali's life changes completely when he discovers the secret hiding place for the treasure of a band of forty thieves. It's sealed deep in the cave, but now he knows where it is and how to get at it. It's a dream come true! Or is it? Soon he has a nosy brother and forty thieves to deal with, and the leader of the thieves is after his blood. Things are about to get messy. Ali Baba is a clever young man, but will he get the better of his devious adversaries and their cunning magic?

Real Reads are accessible texts designed to support the literacy development of primary and lower secondary age children while introducing them to the riches of our international literary heritage. Each book is a retelling of a work of great literature from one of the world’s greatest cultures, fitted into a 64-page book, making classic stories, dramas and histories available to intelligent young readers as a bridge to the full texts, to language students wanting access to other cultures, and to adult readers who are unlikely ever to read the original versions.