Many have roots that stretch across Europe, Asia, and Africa, but when award-winning writer and gatherer of tales Rodaan Al Galidi learned them in his homeland of Iraq, it was as Arabic folktales. The twenty fables and folktales in this illustrated storybook have taken a long journey. But how is one girl in Spider-Man pajamas supposed to do all that? The only way to stop the demon is to find the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the Hindu epic poem, the Mahabharata, and journey through the Kingdom of Death. Her classmates and beloved mother are frozen in time, and it’s up to Aru to save them. She unwittingly frees the Sleeper, an ancient demon whose duty it is to awaken the God of Destruction. But lighting the lamp has dire consequences.

Then she can get herself out of this mess and never ever fib again. They don’t believe her claim that the museum’s Lamp of Bharata is cursed, and they dare Aru to prove it.

One day, three schoolmates show up at Aru’s doorstep to catch her in a lie. While her classmates are jetting off to family vacations in exotic locales, she’ll be spending her autumn break at home, in the Museum of Ancient Indian Art and Culture, waiting for her mom to return from her latest archeological trip.

Twelve-year-old Aru Shah has a tendency to stretch the truth in order to fit in at school. Selected by 2022 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion Harini Logan!

Butter cup the brave books author