Gr 4 Up—Monkey escapes being murdered by monks only to find himself indebted to Samir, the Seller of Dreams,
and traveling down the 11th-century Silk Road trying to find freedom. This masterly tale is packed with legends, high
jinks, and humor alongside deep ponderings on life and love.

An orphan becomes a servant to a dream merchant in a caravan traveling on the Silk Road. "Monkey" relates the tale of his life with Samir, his discovery that a number of people have hired a number of assassins to kill him, and their many close escapes - from flame, poison, arrows, gunpowder, a berserker, and even accident itself.

See also: The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz; Black Bird, Blue Road by Sofiya Pasternack

Quotes

...if you are an orphan, anyone can kill you, and no one will cry. (5)

Death, with love, is better than life without it....I would discover what it meant to love. (44)

Though he was untrustworthy in almost every respect, I knew, at least, that he had saved me once. That had to count for something. (66)

But let this be a lesson: To everyone we love we give a knife.
The knife is shaped to pass through the bones of our chests like a key in a lock.
Nothing can cut our hearts so deeply. (74)

Everything must have a value. (95)

...I could see no difference if God punished us on purpose or by accident - the hammer or the anvil. The result was the same. (107)

Let this be a lesson: Once you are a liar, no one will believe anything about you, even if you show them your broken heart. And a broken heart is the most believable thing in the world. (115)

...I wondered if Samir had ever been a father. I wondered if the reason he loved kids was because his heart had already built a room for them. (146)

People want to tell you who they are, even when they are your enemies. (156)

He was the only person I ever met who didn't dream of gold.
He dreamed dreams. (185) ( )

Daniel Nayeri himself narrates his fanciful tale, from the perspective of a boy monk, about travels with Samir, a hilariously wily merchant on the Silk Road.
This audiobook is pretty short, only about 4 hours of running time, but filled with snippets and stories about Monkey (the name Samir gives to the boy monk) and his adventures during the assassination attempts from the title, The Many Assassinations of Samir, the Seller of Dreams.
I enjoyed it immensely; it is classified as middle grade juvenile fiction, but I believe adults will enjoy this adventure-filled tale as well. ( )

I will read anything connected to the Silk Road. It is for children to adults. I read it alone but I think it would wonderful to read it out loud to your children.

An orphan boy, named Omar, lost his parents, and was taken care of by an old widow woman, who loved him, fell into the hands of some cruel monks and eventually with Samir,the Seller of Dreams. Samir, a known trickster and many other merchants are traveling on the Silk Road.

The boy, is renamed Monkey by Sami, and Monkey becomes his reluctant sidekick. Although Monkey does not like lying and cheating, he becomes amazed at Samier's cleverness in the adventures along the journey. As I read, I began to imagine the immense size of the caravan, and the caravans of the famed Silk Road. Taken back the times of intense bargaining and bartering, it reminded me of my experiences in a Chinese flea market in Shandong Province back in 1992.

Please read this out loud with your kids! ( )