Sindbad's Secret

Sindbad's Voyages #3

by Ludmila Zeman

Sindbad the Sailor has escaped death many times and is planning to live the rest of his life on dry land. But the sea beckons, and he sets out for one final adventure. As he sails from a beautiful far-off land where people drink scented tea, a storm destroys the ship. Sindbad finds refuge on an island, but it holds little safety for him. Ivory traders make him their slave. It seems that he will live out his days in servitude. But the power of love, and his compassion for a baby elephant, give him the strength he needs for survival. His voyage offers him the answer to life’s greatest secret, and finally he can rest.

Ludmila Zeman has retold these beloved adventures from the Thousand and One Nights in her gorgeous trilogy, Sindbad , Sindbad in the Land of the Giants, and Sindbad’s Secret , incorporating design details and maps that place the stories into their historical context

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Adventure, Retellings

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 18, 2003

About the author

Ludmila Zeman - Filmmaker, illustrator, animator, and writer. Born 1947, in Gottwaldov, Czechoslovakia (now Zlín, Czech Republic); immigrated to Canada, 1984; became Canadian citizen, 1988.

Ludmila Zeman built puppets and painted backgrounds for Karel Zeman's films, including Mr. Prokouk the Acrobat; sold first animated short film to Czech TV at age nineteen; created films for Sesame Street and the National Film Board of Canada. Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, instructor.

Certificate of Merit, Art Directors Club, and Pick of the List selection, American Booksellers Association, both 1992, and Black-Eyed Susan Picture Book selection, State of Maryland, 1995-96, all for Gilgamesh the King; Gilgamesh the King and The Revenge of Ishtar were both selected for the Illustrators Exhibition at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, 1994; Governor General's Award for Illustration, Canada Council, 1995, for The Last Quest of Gilgamesh.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

Czech-Canadian artist and author Ludmila Zeman here concludes her Sindbad Trilogy, begun in Sindbad: From the Tales of the Thousand and One Nights and continued in Sindbad in the Land of Giants . Sindbad the Sailor continues to relate his adventures to his guest, Sindbad the porter, explaining how he took his final voyage, accompanying a ship that sailed to China. Shipwrecked upon his return journey, he found himself enslaved by a crew of elephant hunters, but eventually won both his freedom and his heart's desire, in reward for his kind act in sparing a baby elephant...

Like its predecessors, Sindbad's Secret pairs an exciting adventure story with absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Although Zeman does not name China or India in her narrative, it is clear that these are the locations of Sindbad's final adventures, before he eventually returned to Baghdad and settled down. The ending here is heartwarming, emphasizing that, while adventure may beckon, and may provide excitement and wealth, home and family eventually represent a safe haven and true joy. The accompanying artwork is intensely detailed and ornate, with beautiful decorative borders and a rich color palette. I've long been an admirer of Zeman's trilogy of picture-books retelling the epic of Gilgamesh , so I am happy to have finally tracked down these three Sindbad retellings. Recommended to readers who enjoyed the first two of Zeman's books about Sindbad, as well as to anyone seeking children's adaptations of stories from The Arabian Nights .

[Aneesa]

These do not need to be three separate books.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final book in the trilogy starts with Sindbad the Sailor telling his visitor that he will now tell him of his last voyage, where he acquired his greatest jewel of all. Sindbad is among the crew of another ship and is the only survivor when the ship is eaten by a giant sea serpent. Clinging to a piece of wood he survives the ravages of the ocean and eventually comes to rest on the shores of a deserted isle, until he finds a hairy ape man who abuses him and uses him as his steed for some time then he is rescued by another ship only to find he has been taken as a slave. The new men are elephant hunters and take him back to their land where he is put into service in killing elephants. But of course, Sindbad cannot go through with it and once he arrives in this new place he sees a funeral procession with a beautiful bound woman who will be put on top of the funeral pyre to die along with her master. Sindbad figures out a way to save the elephants and the love of his life, Fatima. Thus now at home we see his finest treasure is his wife and their wonderful family of seven children. This book is less scary than the others; nothing really bad happens except for the ship being eaten by the serpent and that is fiddlesticks compared to what we've witnessed in the first two books. The tone in this book is also much lighter and Sindbad's solutions give everyone a happy ending, even the elephants. Finally, the story ends with a moral that Sindbad's visitor easily recognizes as does the reader, that love and family are finer treasures than the best of jewels. No need to comment on the art again as it is as spectacular as in the previous two books and the the book ends with a brief Author's Note which speaks of the culture and philosophy of the Sindbad tales.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Ludmila Zeman's dark and lush illustrations. This Sindbad series does not match her Epic of Gilgamesh three-part series, but it's still well-done. Her imagery and words are haunting and evocative of the original storytelling. It's not for little kids, but I do find her work compelling.