This book tells the story of a young woman with six sisters. Her rich uncle has seven sons and is considered blessed, while her father, a poor man with seven daughters is considered cursed. One of the daughters dresses as a man and makes a fortune as a merchant. I've read this book innumerable times and each time found it better than the last. As the only daughter in a family of six children, I took the story to heart the first time I read it and the main character became my personal heroine. She makes herself look like a man to succeed in a man's world, but she never loses sight of feminity. She is able to overcome the subservient role which is expected of women in her culture with poise. It is a truly inspirational story for any young girl to read.

I just read this book as a school project but now I have read it over and over. This is a great book about a girl named Buran who lives with her six sisters and her poor family in ancient Baghdad. Buran wants to help her family's money problems so she dresses up as a boy and joins a caravan across the Sahara to Tyre. There she sets up shop and soon she is making a good living. But soon she makes friends with the prince of the city. Buran secretly falls in love with him but she can't tell him that because the prince thinks that she is a he.

I read this book as a young adult and thought it was wonderful. This book is about a very capable girl that sets out on her own to save her family and in the meantime finds her freedom and self-worth despite the restrictions of her moslem culture. Her father sired 7 daughters, and her uncle 7 sons and the whole book revolves around the irony that the man considered cursed with only girls later becomes wealthy and happy while all the rich cousins bankrupt their father. The heroine joins a caravan dresses as a boy as she leaves her home town to make her fortune. The work is hard but she is very skillful and inteligent at trading and becomes a pillar of the community in her adopted city. As a spice and herb trader she becomes famous (as a young man) and becomes close friends with the city's prince and his companions. It is only a matter of time before a the young men suspect their effemate young friend who doesn't go to the public bath house or go out drinking so they set up a series of hillarious tests to decide if he is really a she! Then story ends with a delicious series of punishments for the greedy cousins of her uncle that prevents her father from marrying her to any of the seven sons and the arrival of just the right prince for this extraordinary woman. Great book that reads like a popular fable that everyone has heard off but nobody really knows and that is great for contemporary audiences