Extra Book: A Whole New World - Disney's Twisted Tales

Book: A Whole New World - Disney's Twisted Tales
Author: Liz Braswell
Pages: 400

This is my 85th read of the year.

This is a book that I read with my two youngest children.  We have been working on it for several weeks (we only read one chapter a night), and we finally finished it up.  I love that they still tolerate me reading to them each evening.  It is one of my favorite activities and it enables me to read books on their level that otherwise I might not have a chance to.

What if Aladdin never found the lamp?  What if Jafar got it instead?  When Jafar steals the lamp from the desert, he uses the genie to make two wishes:  To become sultan, and to become the most powerful sorcerer in the world.  His third wish is for Jasmine to love him, but luckily, the genie cannot force true love.  

Now it is up to Aladdin and his Street Rats to get the lamp and get rid of Jafar.  With Jasmine's help, the group comes up with a plan to do just that.  They must battle not only Jafar, but his "back from the dead" army.  It is up to Jasmine and Aladdin to unite the people of Agrabah to fight Jafar and win back their city.

I thought this was great.  What a clever spin on a favorite Disney book.   These are not for young children - fair warning - because there is a lot of fighting, and death involved (more than your typical Disney), so these are for older kids and adults.  I thought the book was well written, and well thought out.  The story started as the typical story of Aladdin, the one we all know.  IT took a few chapters for it to veer off course where Aladdin becomes trapped in the desert and Jafar gets the lamp instead.  And then it takes off on its own from there.

My two kids enjoyed it as well, and we are looking forward to reading the others.

Stars: 4 1/2