Over the centuries, the travelling tribal peoples of Arabia established a tradition of story-telling. These tales of magic and mystery, passed from generation to generation of Bedouin tribes, spanned the Arabian peninsula, but were rarely, if ever, written down. In Halimah and the Snake, Grace Todino-Gonguet has collected and re-written for a fresh audience, a handful of stories from Oman s folktale heritage there are many more. As with folktales and legends worldwide, the creatures and characters are at times terrifying and fantastic, the stories always enthralling, and invariably seek to impart some moral guidance to their young readers. In this first collection we discover how three enchanted birds come to the rescue in the remote desert, learn what happens when a tree can talk, and revel in the suspense of an Omani equivalent of The Sleeping Beauty. Throughout, Susan Keeble s enchanting watercolors bring these stories vividly to life.