"Women are the center of these 27 lively traditional tales that have been told and retold in Lebanese, Palestinian, and Turkish families for generations...translated here for a contemporary audience...bright, accessible...the informal style has the immediacy and timelessness of family storytelling...There are motifs from The Thousand and One Nights...and also from the Brothers Grimm...for family, school and adult audiences. A rich resource for teens and teachers."

"Exquisite collection...While the female protagonists are intelligent and capable, their worlds are circumscribed; they know little of the universe outside their garden walls. The male protagonists travel far and wide, their only boundaries imposed by bad luck....Magical birds, beautiful genies, clever sons and beautiful daughters populate these pages. Readers of all ages will enjoy the delightful and timeless narratives."-Foreword Magazine

"These tales had been passed down as oral tradition by generations of women and finally were written down by Nuweihed, when she was eighty-three, at the request of her niece, Salma Jayyusi...The stories she memorized and frequently retold are not only entertaining but also show how a classic oral tradition becomes a medium for passing on to children moral lessons and ethical values. In addition, these stories are interesting in that almost all of them portray women who are active decision makers in various life situations that they confront."