Castle in the air brings Aladdin to life!

books:


	• Castle in the Air Diana Wynne Jones Eos, 2001 - 304 pages average customer review:based on 44 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Castle in the air brings Aladdin to life!

Reviewed by Avni Gupta (age 15) for Reader Views (7/08)

When I got "Castle in the Air" in the mail, I was really excited about reading it. I had already read the other stories about Howl and Sophie so I wanted to see what Diana Wynne Jones had come up with this time. She didn't disappoint! Her book, "Castle in the Air," was a twist on the normal Aladdin story, with different characters and different places, but all in all the same motive.

This book is all about the son of a late carpet merchant whose name is Abdullah. Abdullah is in love with a princess named Flower-in-the-Night. Before Flower-in-the-Night and Abdullah can get married and run away, she is taken by a djinn who is stealing all of the princesses from around the area. Abdullah then sets off to find his princess and then get married to her. He finds himself in a place far to the north of where he normally lives while he is on the quest to find his princess. There, he meets a soldier who is also a thief who becomes his travelling partner. Along the way, they meet up with a black cat and her kitten. Abdullah knows that there is something fishy about this cat but can't quite put his finger on it.

The way that this book was written shows you that Diana Wynne Jones was an avid fan of the movie Aladdin. Many of the elements in this book are similar to the Disney movie. For example, in the movie Aladdin, Aladdin finds a magic carpet and a genie lamp. In this book, Abdullah buys a magic carpet and gets hold of a genie lamp. Another similarity between the movie and the book is the fact that they are both set in Middle Eastern places, with deserts and sand all around.

I think that "Castle in the Air" was an amazing read. It was interesting and made it so that putting down the book was hard to do. I think that I would recommend this book to anybody that has read any of Diana Wynne Jones's other books and liked them.

for more information click here

Fun and refreshingly original

"Castle in the Air" is Diana Wynne Jones' sequel to her amazingly awesome novel "Howl's Moving Castle." It was originally published in 1990 (four years after "Howl's Moving Castle"). At first glance, this novel doesn't sound like a sequel--it sounds more like a companion book at best--but I promise it does explain more about Howl and Sophie, just not right away and not, perhaps, in the most obvious way.

That said, this story is set in the Sultanates of Rashpuht a land far to the south of Ingary (where Howl and Sophie make their home). Instead of a land akin to King Arthur and Merlin, Rashpuht is much more likely to harbor Aladdin and other desert-dwellers. This change in setting, along with a new protagonist, make for the most dramatic differences between "Castle in the Air" and its predecessor.

Abdullah works as a carpet merchant in the city of Zanzib. Abdullah's stall may not be as prosperous as his father's first wife's relatives would like, but Abdullah can't stand most of them so he doesn't worry too much. What really bothers Abdullah is the fact that he's selling carpets at all. Abdullah is convinced there is more to life and spends a good deal of his time daydreaming about what his life could be like if, say, he were a prince who had escaped bandits and disguised himself as a carpet merchant before he found his true love.

All in all, the young man doesn't give his daydreams much thought until he is sold a mysterious carpet. With the carpet, Abdullah finds that all of his dreams seem to be coming true with alarming accuracy. Whisked to a magical garden, Abdullah meets and falls in love with the beautiful and intelligent Flower-in-the-Night only to have her abducted by an evil djinn. So begins Abdullah's adventure as he and his carpet set off to rescue his true love.

This being a novel by Diana Wynne Jones, the plot is filled with charming twists and enjoyable characters throughout. The other great thing about this novel is how much Jones fleshes out the world she introduced in "Howl's Moving Castle." As the novel progresses, readers learn more about the relations between Ingary, Rashpuht, and Strangia (a land that becomes important later, trust me). At the same time, Jones also creates a completely new set of customs and even a new diction for her Rashpuhtian characters which gives the novel an impressive depth.

I don't know if this was the intended effect but, even though both novels are written in English, this change in diction also creates the effect that the characters here speak a different language and that, on some level, their customs would be very foreign to those found in Ingary. One of Jones' best inventions is that buyers and sellers in Zanzib always speak to each other "in the most formal and flowery way." This habit creates a lot of conversations that function on a variety of levels much in the same way body language can add to an exchange. For example:

"It is possible that my low and squalid establishment might provide that which you seek, O pearl of wanderers," he said, and cast his eye critically over the stranger's dirty desert robe, the corroded stud in the side of the man's nose, and his tattered headcloth as he said it.

"It is worse than squalid, might seller of floor coverings," the stranger agreed.

Exchanges like this appear throughout the novel and make it really enjoyable to read. At the same time this type of double talk suggests that Abdullah is a shrewder narrator than Sophie might have been at the start of the novel. Abdullah doesn't always know exactly what's going on during the novel, but he always tries to make sure he comes out on top (or at least not on a forty foot pole).

On its own, "Castle in the Air" is a lot of fun as far as fantasies go. Read in combination with "Howl's Moving Castle" and "House of Many Ways" (Jones' latest novel featuring Howl and Sophie due out in June 2008) this book is excellent.

for more information click here

Nice, entertaining read

I haven't read juvenile fiction in years! Thankfully, I was not disappointed with selecting this book. It read it during my vacation and was thoroughly entertained. I highly recommend this book for pre-teens and those who love quick, light-hearted reads.

P.S. Read 'Howl's Moving Castle' first!

castle in the air

just when you think everything has calmed down howl manages to tick someone off and this time its a djinn this book will have you scratching you head in wonderment

An Entertaining Read

Though, unfortunately, not as good as Howl's Moving Castle, it is nevertheless an entertaining read. It has unique and developed characters, a characteristic quality of Diana Wynne Jones's books. I loved this book, and it is a fine example of a book by this particular author. I think that it fully deserves five stars, and has a brilliant plot, a fantastic cast of characters, including a vast array of princesses, a carpet seller with extremely fussy relatives, a fried squid seller, you get the picture. The ending is surprising and has a unique twist that catches you off guard. I was truly entertained by this excellent page turner, which is further proof of Diana Wynne Jones's fantastic talent as an author.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Abdullah was a young and not very prosperous carpet dealer. His father, who had been disappointed in him, had left him only enough money to open a modest booth in the Bazaar. When he was not selling carpets, Abdullah spent his time daydreaming. In his dreams he was not the son of his father, but the long-lost son of a prince. There was also a princess who had been betrothed to him at birth. He was content with his life and his daydreams until, one day, a stranger sold him a magic carpet.

In this stunning sequel to Howl's Moving Castle, Diana Wynne Jones has again created a large-scale, fast-paced fantasy in which people and things are never quite what they seem. There are good and bad djinns, a genie in a bottle, wizards, witches, cats and dogs (but are they cats and dogs?), and a mysterious floating castle filled with kidnapped princesses, as well as two puzzling prophecies. The story speeds along with tantalizing twists and turns until the prophecies are fulfilled, true identities are revealed, and all is resolved in a totally satisfying, breathtaking, surprise-filled ending.

for more information click here

hot

not?

What's your opinion?

Write a review and share your thoughts!

recommendations

The All Time Best Young Adult Books EVER!!!
Books that Crafted My Love for Reading
Great Fiction Books for Women/Girls
YA Fantasy for Strong Women!
Excellent Fantasy Reads!

castle

Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in The Secret of Terror ...
The Stanley Kubrick Archives
Rhythm
Castle of Wisdom
Castle: Medieval Days and Knights (A Sabuda & Reinhart Pop-up Book)

search for books
castle in the, air, castle

Impressum / about us