Recommended. I read it all the way through in one evening.

In short: Harry Potter meets the Arabian Nights. The main character is a girl, but boys play a strong role in this adventure as well.

The story starts out with Ruby, whose mother wants her to grow up to be a normal person, despite the fact that she has an obviously magic purse and gets mail from her mother by having the wind blow it to her. But red-headed Ruby isn’t cut out for a normal life (some people aren’t), and when her mother forbids her from going up to the attic the same day that her grandmother tells her that her birthday present is up there…well, goodbye normal.

I won’t be giving too much away if I say her birthday present strongly resembles the object in the title of the book.

However, the first thing that Ruby does with said present, after being magically and wonderfully (and thirstily) transported to a mysterious country in the desert, is LOSE it. It’s not her fault–she had no idea that magic carpets were so picky–but it’s her job to get it back from the evil half-genie madman who stole it from her. ( )