Wishing Moon
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| Author | Michael O. Tunnell |
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| Cover artist | Jo Tronc |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | Dutton Children's Books |
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Publication date
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3 June 2004 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 266 pp |
| ISBN | |
Wishing Moon by Michael O. Tunnell is a modern-style Arabian fantasy for children. It was published in New York in 2004 by Dutton Children's Books, and is followed by a sequel titled Moon Without Magic.
Wishing Moon follows the tale of Aminah Barnes, a beggar orphan who is thrown Aladdin's magical lamp by an unwitting princess, Badr Al-Budur, after Aladdin has married her. As Aminah works out problems with the lamp and its demon, she eventually begins her own journey of emotions while trying to avoid the notice of the spoiled and ambitious princess who seeks to regain the lost lamp. After settling into a moderately prosperous life, Aminah decides to help other people in need, but selectively, only helping those who help others. Soon, however, her good deeds draw the unwanted eye of Badr Al-Budur.
Aminah Barnes the main character and an orphaned beggar in the city Al-Kal'as, Aminah approaches the princess hoping for sympathy and gets knocked on the head with the jinni's lamp instead. Since she was raised in a comfortably middle-class family before being orphaned, she treats the jinni with politeness and sympathy, eventually earning his affection. With a moderately large sum of wealth, she purchases a house and takes in first Idris as a manservant and then Barra as cook. Aminah wishes for the ability to travel through time and space at will in order to fulfil a dream she shared with her father. Eager to help the poor but disenchanted with humanity's greed after practically starting a riot by giving too much to the beggars in the market, she adds to this ability an orb with which to seek out the best people to help in order to help others. Using these two abilities, she helps a tailor and foster-father of thirteen named Ahab and the selfless baker Hassan in their respective trades. Eventually, she is forced to rescue Hassan from Badr's dungeon and concoct a plan to escape Al-Kal'as. Over the course of the book, she also goes by the names Zubaydah and Zaynab, as well as impersonating an angel and is eventually revealed to be Cinderella's fairy godmother.
Princess Badr Al-Budur the spoiled and ambitious daughter of the Sultan, her name literally means 'full moon of full moons' because of her great beauty. She schemes with the captain of her guard, Saladin, to assassinate Aladdin and use the jinni to seize the throne, but has much difficulty locating Aminah because she underestimates the girl's wits by looking only for beggar girls, especially ones with too much money.
Jinni the jinni of Aladdin's bottle, he at first holds only contempt for Aminah and the human race as a whole, but begins to soften towards her as she does things no other master has, such as accepting the rules of wishing and offering him food. In order to be able to play chess against Aminah and spend more time out of the bottle, he takes on the form of the human he once was and the name Uncle Omar, after Aminah's father, who he looks much like. Over time, he does become something of a father figure and even threatens Hassan with all kinds of bodily harm, should Hassan ever take advantage of Aminah. At Aminah's urging and with her help, Jinni discovers he was once a ruthless landlord named Gindar who loved only his sister. When Aminah offers to go back in time and stop him from becoming a jinni, he declines, fearing both a relapse for those he has helped and causing a time paradox. Though very much a paternal figure for Aminah, he enjoys confusing her, primarily by making references to future things like pizza, Galileo, and New York City.
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